Kodak || I know it is popular to hate on corporations. I do it sometimes, too. But . . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . the flip side is that some of them are icons of America's greatness, it innovations, it admired standing in the world.

One such company, it seems to me, was Kodak.

Not any more.

And that's kind of sad. I am certain some here will be able to find reasons to be glad about this, but I guess I'm talking about the image (pun acknowledged and not avoided) of what was once the world's greatest image company.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-kodak-could-still-learn-from-polaroid/2012/11/29/01b8b8e4-38d7-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html

Just this little tidbit form the larger article. In the late 1990s, Kodak was selling in excess of a billion rolls of film each year. Last year they sold fewer than 20 million - a 98% decrease in what was their core business.






All things we create are finite. It is always just a matter of when.

[ret5hd]

1. kopdak invented digital imaging...it is their own fault they didn't develop it.

they didn't want to harm their film business.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Not true

google it.

[ret5hd]

9. OK: "The World’s First Digital Camera by Kodak and Steve Sasson"

second result by googling "who invented the first digital camera"

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/08/05/the-worlds-first-digital-camera-by-kodak-and-steve-sasson/



<snip>
If you’re a digital photography buff, here’s some required trivia knowledge: what you see above is a photograph of the first digital camera ever built. It was created in December 1975 by an engineer at Eastman Kodak named Steve Sasson, now regarded as the inventor of the digital camera.
</snip>

[liberal N proud]

2. The icons such as Kodak are all falling

Last edited Sun Dec 2, 2012, 07:18 PM - Edit history (1)

I work for another company that has been in business and is in its last years due to poor corporate decisions and greed. At one time these companies valued their employees and were innovators.

The way I see it, the company I work for has 5 years tops before they are no longer producing. I don't think I will be be there that long.

Edit to add this link to a commentary I saw earlier today:

Worst business decisions ever?

http://money.msn.com/investing/worst-business-decisions-ever


Talks about what happened to Kodak, K-Mart, Digital and other companies who made bad business decisions that ultimately cost the company.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. And then there's lining up against the Beatles, Polaroid suit on instant cameras

and the fact that Icons of our society ,corporation wise, had No Allegiance to their Country .

[dballance]

4. I'm Sad to See Kodak's Demise

I remember when Kodak was practically the ONLY film company. When Fuji entered the market here it was a big deal. Then, of course, Polaroid came out with that instant film picture stuff. We're not a patient society. That's one reason the instant digital photo is so popular now.

Remember those little Kodak drive-through kiosks in the parking lots of grocery stores where you could drop off your film for development? Some of them got turned into to coffee shop drive-throughs. Most just got demolished.

I have a great digital camera and I still have my old Canon AE-1 Program film camera. I spent a lot of my summer job money on that camera when I was still in school. I'm thinking of getting some film and using it again.

[Deep13]

5. less market diversity now.

When cameras ran on film, a lot of companies made cameras: Kodak, Minolta, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Argus, Pentax, Polaroid, Konica, Ricoh, Yashika, Fuji, Rolei, Brownie, Leica, Vivitar, Contax etc.

Likewise, there was a wide choice of print and slide film: Kodak (many, many varieties), Fuji (almost as many), Agfa, Polaroid (instant and 35mm), numerous store brands, Ilford etc.

Now because it is all about image processing and sensor capabilities, two companies, Nikon and Canon, dominate the market with Pentax, Fuji, Sony, Leica, and Olympus filling niche markets.

[FarCenter]

10. Actually there is more diversity, since smartphones and pad computers mostly have digital cameras

[Deep13]

14. Yeah, I guess so...

...I suppose camera phones replace the Instamatics and other very simple cameras. I guess I still don't think of telephones and small computers as cameras, but they are and they bury most of those old simple film cameras in quality. I find it funny that camera phone applications like Instagram can make sharp, clear digital photos look like crappy Polaroids from the 1980s.

Still, as good as many phone cameras are, a decent camera-only is a significant jump over the phones in quality and versatility. And really good amateur stuff like my Nikon D80 or even the Fuji X10 I took to the Middle East with me are just phenomenal. Still, I have not seen a digital B&W image that is as good as film.

[1-Old-Man]

6. Andyet the first digital camera I ever bought was a Kodak, so how did they miss that market?

One wonders where they missed the boat because they were there when it was just getting started.

[RobertEarl]

8. They were in denial... Film was their gawd

We could have all been posting from our iDaks, or iKods, if they were not so blind.

[FarCenter]

11. Film cameras were a largely Japanese business by the time digital cameras came out

Kodak had not competed in high end film cameras for some time, emphasizing low end consumer cameras like the Brownie, Instamatic and whatever they called the one that took pictures on discs.

Since with digital there are no consumables, just the cameras, Kodak was out of business. (actually, they did try to get into magnetic recording media and into flash memory cards, but they had no advantage over any of the other companies)

[jwirr]

12. I'd say it depends on ones definition of greatness. What our corporations have been doing across

the world is NOT greatness. And we are now their target.

[CBGLuthier]

13. Everyone Keeps asking why a film manufacturer could not conquer the camera market.

Other than the brownie, and some microfilming equipment, Kodak was never very successful as a camera company.

The fact that they took an off the shelf primitive CMOS imaging chip and cobbled together a digital camera means nothing. They were a manufacturer of a consumable product. Film.

Back when i did microfilming in the 80's I worked with a 70 year-old man who had been a lifetime Kodak employee. It made him sad, even back then, just how far they had already fallen.

They made great film but there is no real call for great film anymore. I doubt that banks or engineering firms microfilm in this modern era and the motion picture industry is going digital at every step of the way. They have been doomed for years.

This camera here is the main reason my left shoulder is bad. I filmed well over a million documents on one of these.

[FarCenter]

15. Banks used to microfilm every check they handled, probably 70 billion per year at peak

The film was stored for 7 years.

That has now been replaced by digital cameras and magnetic storage.