RIP, Eastman Kodak cameras.

[joeekaitis]

 

 

 

They say they're going to stay in the printer business.  Good luck with that.

 

Just before Vivitar was acquired by Sakar, Vivitar announced a licensing deal to make 35mm film cameras under the Kodak name, but nothing came of it.

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[rp2813]

The leadership at Kodak made some incredibly bad decisions about choosing a path forward into the digital age.  They lost their way as a result, and that is truly sad.

 

I'd consider a Kodak printer.  My workplace impression of their copiers back in the day is that they were fabulous and capable, even if they were almost the size of a room.

 

I hate my HP printer.  It can't start any task without providing its exasperating Ed Norton impression first.

 

[arbilab]

I was this >|< close to going to work for Kodak in 1989 on a recordable optical camera disc project. In a matter of days I went from hired to hiring freeze and in a matter of weeks Kodak sold the whole project to some Japanese company.

Afterwards I came to find out that Kodak had a reputation for bringing products to the workable stage then abandoning them at a loss. How long did they think they could keep doing that?

I hate to see another American industrial icon fail from inbred management, but it is what it is and nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[tolivac]

Looks like Kodak is leaving the cinema industry-at least in projectors-Barco is taking over along with IMAX in developing laser illuminated projectors.The laser takes the place of the xenon bulb.Less power consumption and longer light source life-and greater image resolution says veiwers that saw the first IMAX-Barco projector demenstration at Moody Gardens,Galvenston Tx.Mass release of laser projectors is expected in 2013.Kodak has bowed out of this.They still make 35MM film stock for shooting movies-but----more film producers are using high res digital 2K and 4K cameras for movie recording.And the laser may make projectors safer in a way-High pressure xenon bulbs are dangerous even when not lit-they can explode from handling-so maintenance folks changing xenon bulbs in projectors or other xenon bulb usage have to wear thick leather welders coats,gloves and face masks to protect from an exploding xenon bulb.And when the xenon bulb is lit--and lets go--serious damage to the projection system can result.Reflectors,lamp house interior parts,and digital projectors-the digital imaging head.Lasers won't have that hazard.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

"My work is finished!" -- George Eastman

Well, as luck would have it, I have a Kodak Easy Share...! (Am I going to be able to get parts/service for it?)

With other more-established competitors, such as Nikon and Canon, and by that meaning established over-seas, there couldn't be a worser fate to befall such an American icon and one of which helped photography be such a hobby enjoyed by millions & making photographs more convenient and much easier to take, revolutionizing the industry right at the turn of a couple centuries...

Too bad...

-- Dave

 

[hunter]

Kodak sounds like AT&T Information Systems

I worked for AT&T Information Systems in the 1980s. They were exactly the same way. (SO was Lucent Technologies later on.)

It's..wow.

 

[launderess]

Sad, But Shows What Comes From Bad Management

Shareholders should be in revolt and fire everyone from the CEO down to the board.

Kodak's demise is almost 100% related to their not taking the digital camera/computer trend seriously in it's early stages. Indeed it is almost as if management kept it's heads in the sand until it was too late. No, the company kept producing film and cameras that use them as if nothing was going to change. *WRONG*

Now even a tech savvy eight year old can take a picture with a digital camera, download it into a computer; no scratch that as most often the thing is taken with a smart phone or cell with a digital camera built in, click and send. If they want to get fancy the child usually knows how to edit it as well.

As if upstate New York didn't have enough problems with employment Kodak's woes have hit areas like Rochester hard.

 

[cfz2882]

kodak cameras

i used to use a kodak disc camera up through about 1995 after which stores quit
offering the discs.Still have plenty of pics i took with the kodak disc;they are
a little grainy,but great memories nonetheless
Digital cameras may be convenient and enable many"tricks",but from what i have
seen digital still cannot capture vivid colors and range of color and detail like
good color film can...RIP kodachrome. -Nice song BTW too!

 

[spookiness]

film vs. cameras

I always used Kodak film and thought it was superb. (Fuji never rendered blues/greens very well IMO).

On the other hand, the cameras weren't that great. Just vehicles for selling more film. An exception may be the mid-60's Instamatic 500, a rather expensive German-made camera in it's day. I have one that was my grandfathers, and I love to just hold it and look at it. When I was little, I remember watching slideshows he took of the 1964 World's Fair with that camera. Some years ago I went to Flushing Meadows and took photos of the Unisphere and other sites with the same camera, right around the time before they stopped making 126 instamatic film.

 

[lordkenmore]

the cameras weren't that great.

I'm not much of a photographer, but I'd always had the feeling that Kodak cameras weren't very good. Indeed, I had good first view experience of that with one of those small Instamatic cameras. Very easy to use, but the photos were never very good. I'm guessing that at least in some ways my elderly Canon digital camera would be capable of vastly superior performance.

Still, the Instamatic was easy to use, which was a plus for some. In my case, it was cheap (yard sale find). And it did capture a few pictures of people at times worth remembering.

 

[whirlcool]

In high school I had a Kodak Instamatic X15 camera that took pretty good photos.
But when i got into college I got a 35mm Minolta SRT101 camera. The difference between the two was amazing. Photos taken with the Minolta were as good as real life!

 

[joeekaitis]

Kodak was part of the consortium that inflicted, er, uh, introduced APS, a/k/a Advanced Photo System. With its 24mm negative size, it was to 35mm what pocket 110 cameras were to 126 instamatic: smaller negative but few advantages over the format it was meant to supplant among casual photographers. And let's not forget the nadir of point 'n' shoot: the DISC camera.

Ironically, no one is predicting the end of 35mm film production. Fuji, Kodak and Agfa are still cranking it out. Many professional photographers who shoot digital for a living are returning to film for their leisure photography. Some say the limited number of exposures on a roll forces you to make every shot count, instead of shooting a dozen digital shots and hope one is better than the rest.

 

[whirlcool]

Those 110 cameras weren't really that good at all.

In the early 80's Pentax came out with a complete 110 kit. It was like a 35mm kit, interchangable lenses motorized flashes, etc. But the picture quality could not be compared to 35mm. The pictures were grainy at best.

I had one of those Pentax kits. One of the reasons for the poor photo quality is that the film is not held in place behind the lens by a gear as it is in 35mm cameras, it was held in place just by film tension. So the film could actually move a little if you had time between taking different frames. So the 110 camera format had that flaw working against it. I dumped the 110 camera set sometime in the late 80s when I realized it would probably never take sharp focused photos.

My Minolta soldiered on until I bought my first digital, a Fuji film camera that took great photos. I now use a Nikon D80, which is a dream to use.

 

[neptunebob]

Did Kodak ever even make an SLR professional camera? I don't think so. The first time I had an SLR it was called a Maymiya (consumer reports best buy) but it soon died and there was no support but once you have an SLR you cannot go back to a "snapshot" camera. I now have the Nikon D40 one of the lowest priced DSLR and again, could not go back to a "regular" camera, except I might get one that takes underwater pictures and videos. One recent article said that the pictures taken by astronauts on the moon were on a Kodak camera. Uh, I believe it was a (very expensive) Hasselblad? The film was likely Kodak, as when the first spacewalk was on ... Kodak Kodacolor Film!

 

[whirlcool]

I almost bought the D40 before buying my D80. The D40 is a very nice camera!