What does vidicon mean?
A vidicon is a vacuum-tube image pickup device used in television and early video cameras. It converted light from a scene into an electronic video signal and was especially important in the development of colour television. Unlike modern solid-state sensors such as CCD and CMOS image sensors, a vidicon worked as an electron-sensitive vacuum tube. The word is still encountered in broadcasting, electronics, and television history, where it usually refers to an older camera-tube design. In contemporary descriptions, mentioning a vidicon often identifies a historical camera system or explains why early pictures had characteristics associated with analogue broadcast video. The term is technical rather than everyday, but it provides a precise name for a key technology that helped move television from experimental systems into practical electronic broadcasting.
nounA vacuum tube used as an image pickup device in some television and video cameras, especially early colour-television systems.
- An electron-sensitive vacuum tube that converted light from a scene into an electrical video signal for a television or video camera.
"The studio replaced its aging vidicon with a solid-state camera."
"The colour camera used a vidicon to convert the scene into an electronic video signal."
"The engineers replaced the unreliable vidicon with a solid-state image sensor."
The plural is rare because the word normally refers to a specific type of camera tube rather than to multiple individual units.
"Engineers compared the vidicons from the two studio cameras."
Before electronic sensors became standard, a television camera captured its image through a vacuum tube.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of vidicon
Vidicon is a mid-20th-century blend of video and icon, coined for an electron-tube television camera pickup. Its video element comes through Latin videre, “to see,” while icon derives from Greek eikōn, “image” or “likeness,” connecting the word with the ideas of sight and image.
How vidicon is actually used
A technical and largely historical term used in television engineering, broadcasting, and the history of imaging technology. In modern writing, it often refers specifically to an obsolete camera-tube design rather than to modern solid-state sensors.