page_title: Monoscope
section_title: Usage
hierarchical_section_title: Monoscope / Usage
caption_attribution_description: Español: Detalle del ánodo de monoscopio CK1414F10C de Raytheon. Se pueden ver algunos de los caracteres que puede generar. English: Character generator monoscope CK1414F10C made by Raytheon. Generates an analog video signal with capital letters, digits and various dingbats; some of the stenciled characters on the -F10C custom anode are visible
context_page_description: A monoscope was a special form of video camera tube which displayed a single still video image. The image was built into the tube, hence the name. The tube resembled a small cathode ray tube. Monoscopes were used beginning in the 1950s to generate TV test patterns and station logos. This type of test card generation system was technologically obsolete by the 1980s.
context_section_description: Monoscopes were available with a wide variety of standard patterns and messages, and could be ordered with a custom image such as a station logo.  Monoscope "cameras" were widely used to produce test cards, station logos, special signals for test purposes and standard announcements like "Please stand by" and  "normal service will be resumed....". They had many advantages over using a live camera pointed at a card; an expensive camera was not tied up, they were always ready, and were never misframed or out of focus. Indeed, monoscopes were often used to calibrate the live cameras, by comparing the monoscope image and the live camera image of the same test pattern.
  Pointing an electronic camera at the same stationary monochrome caption for a long period of time could result in the image becoming burnt onto the camera tube's target — and even onto the phosphor of a monitor displaying it in extreme cases.
  Monoscopes were used as character generators for text mode video rendering in computer displays for a short time in the 1960s. The monoscope declined in popularity during the 1960s due to its inability to generate a colour test card, and the development of solid state TV test pattern signal generators.
caption: Part of a character generator target with numbers and symbols
exif: {"Image Make": "", "Image Model": "4MDSC", "Image Software": "Jasc", "Image ExifOffset": "148", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "796", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3787", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/344", "EXIF FNumber": "287/100", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007/07/11 02:43:38", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007/07/11 02:43:38", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "6", "EXIF MeteringMode": "MultiSpot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "604", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "672", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "0100", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "766"}