Panasonic MS5

The three Panasonic MS5 cameras were donated to the station via a member (Kevin Bowman?)Unverified or incomplete information working for a company who were throwing them away as too old to be of any use. There are however significantly lighter than the F10s (despite having a SVHS tape transport onboard), and much less noisy in low light levels.

After a while kept as OB cameras they became the main studio rig cameras in Autumn 2003, a role they have retained ever since, as well as a continued role on outside broadcasts. The facility to record to tape has only rarely been used, however for Roses they have been hooked up with 12V external batteries and loaded with SVHS tapes to go and chase round sports pitches following the action.

Their heritage as basically consumer video cameras upgraded with SVHS support has lead to some annoying reliability issues, mainly with the connections on the back of the cameras needed to connect them to studio umbilical cables. These are fitted with phono connectors for video output and a unique 3-pin connector for 12V power (and originally charging an internal battery). Both of these proved to be quite fragile, as well as the power connectors being unobtainable.