Gary Critcher

This afternoon I’ve been looking through some Standard 8 film that I digitised a few years ago. This reel is a mixture of motor racing and Henley (I think) Regatta. In the middle of the Henley footage is a couple of shots of a BBC OB camera on a crane. Here’s a couple of stills. Does anyone recognise the cameraman? Or the camera?

Alan Taylor

I can’t help with identifying the camera or the cameraman, but the microphone on top of the camera is a Labor gun mic. It was the main rifle mic used on OBs until the Sennheisers came along, but there again, I believe that the Labor company was part of Sennheiser anyway.

There are very few mentions or photographs of Labor gun mics on the internet. I would guess that it was taken mid to late 1960s.

Robin Sutherland

I don’t recognise the cameraman but pretty sure that under the cover will be a Pye Mk6 camera. The zoom lens is a Taylor Hobson Varatol 3 which I recal had a 10:1 range with a 2x range extender. All still in use when I arrived at Tel OBs in 1969.

Alan Taylor

I agree about it most likely being a Pye mk VI, largely because of my assumption that with the Labor gun mic, it would have been mid to late 1960s.

However I was wondering why there was a cover on the camera? The cameraman didn’t look as though he was expecting much rain.

Graeme Wall

When I was working on OBs, it was automatic to put a cover on regardless of the weather.

Brian Summers

Whilst I agree it did not look much like rain, I expect the cover was fitted as a matter of course. The camera is fitted with a cooling fan.

If it had come on to rain it would have been difficult to fit the cover while the host was up and the camera would have been unusable until in place and steady again.