Camerapedia
Register
Advertisement

Eastman Kodak Co., of Rochester, New York, is an American film maker and camera maker. For at least three quarters of the 20th century it played the dominant role in worldwide photography business. June 24, 2002

History[]

In 1879 George Eastman, amateur photographer and employee of a bank in Rochester, had invented an emulsion-coating machine for mass production of dry plates and got a patent on it in England. In 1881 he and Rochester's local buggy whip \ the address 343 State Street, longtime headquarters address of the company. In 1884 Eastman and Strong transformed their partnership to a corporation for ]photography. The first step towards that goal was the "Kojak" camera he introduced in 1888 which had a built-in 100-exposure paper roll film costing $25, a huge amount. The box camera had to be sent back to the factory once all the exposures had been used. The customers got their cameras back with new film roll loaded into it, and the image prints. In 1890 a Kodak folding camera with built-in 48 exposure film roll followed. After years of advertising the brand Kodak the company was renamed Eastman Kodak Co. In 1900 Eastman had reached his goal, offering the Brownie rollfilm camera which cost only $1 including a 6 exposure film. Further film rolls cost just 15 cents. The Brownie camera series was continued until 1970.

Through the early twentieth century, Kodak produced an increasingly large range of cameras, in an increasing range of film formats - becoming the dominant supplier of both cameras and film.

Kodak used to have autonomous branches in other countries, which developed their own lines of products, as Ford did for cars. The German branch Kodak AG, which made the famous Retina models, is discussed in a separate page, as is Kodak Ltd. (UK). At its peak Kodak's international plants were

  • in Canada: Kodak Canada Limited, Toronto
  • in UK: Kodak Limited, several plants
  • in France: Kodak Pathé, several plants
  • in Germany: Kodak AG, Stuttgart (formerly Nagel)
  • in Australia: Kodak Australasia Pty. Ltd., Coburg
  • in Argentina: Kodak Argentina S.A.I.C., Buenos Aires
  • in Brazil: Kodak Brasileira Comércio e Indústria Ltda., São Paulo
  • in India: Kodak Limited
  • in Spain: Kodak S.A., Madrid
  • in Mexico: Kodak Industrial, S.A. de C.V.


With exception of the Mexican plant all these international branches made cameras. Most U.S. plants outside Rochester specialized in producing basic materials like gelatine (Peabody/Massachusetts), plastics (Longview/Texas), chemicals (Batesville/Arkansas), polyester fibre (Columbia/S.C.), and basic materials for film making and others (Kingsport/Tennessee). Some of the films and plates were made in Windsor/Colorado. At its peak, the company was huge and made everything connected with photography: cameras, lenses (including some of the best lenses of the mid-20th century, see Kodak lenses), film, and processing chemicals and equipment, in addition to photographic materials used in the graphic arts industry (for example, for printing). It also conducted important photographic research and development. 60,000 people were working for Kodak in Rochester. In 1966 the company had 100,000 employees worldwide.

The most popular Kodak cameras were the ones for 126 film cartridges. The first of these cameras was launched in 1963. By 1976, 60 million Instamatic cameras had been sold, six times more than all competitors put together had sold of this camera type, and also six times more than Kodak's previous big success, the Brownie Star camera series (10 million Starflex, Starmite, and Starflash sold, made from 1957 to 1962). Another huge success was achieved with Kodak's type 110 pocket film cartridges and pocket cameras which were introduced in 1972. But this time other companies took a larger share of the market by abandoning their own miniature film formats and introducing smart pocket cameras for 110 film instead. Kodak's decline began when it flopped with another miniature film format, the disc film, in the 1980s.

In the late 1970s, Kodak developed Instant cameras and a new Instant Picture system, in competition with Polaroid. This led to lawsuits, resulting in a loss for Kodak. Damages of over $900 million were awarded to Polaroid[1].

In the year 1976 camera engineer Steven Sasson developed Kodak's first digital still camera (for 0.1 megapixel black&white exposures), based on newest CCD technology. Kodak didn't realize the huge value of this invention and delayed the production of digital consumer cameras until it was too late to enter the digital market with the huge success that Kodak was used to having. In August 2006 it abandoned the production of digital cameras by outsourcing the production to Flextronics, an all-and-everything OEM manufacturer in Singapore.

Advertising[]

Becoming the only super power in a market of popular and professional products was not just based on product quality. Advertising the big brand was always a not underestimatable factor of Kodak's success.


35mm film[]

  1. Kodak 35
  2. Kodak 35 RF
  3. Kodak Automatic 35
  4. Kodak Automatic 35B
  5. Kodak Automatic 35F
  6. Kodak Automatic 35R4
  7. Kodak disposable
  8. Kodak Ektra
  9. Kodak Motormatic 35
  10. Kodak Motormatic 35F
  11. Kodak Motormatic 35R4
  12. Kodak Cameo FX
  13. Kodak Cameo afm
  14. Kodak Cameo, Cameo Fixed Focus, Cameo efm
  15. Kodak Cameo Motor EX
  16. Kodak Cameo Motordrive, Cameo sfm
  17. Kodak Cameo Sharp Focus
  18. Kodak Cameo Zoom
  19. Kodak Pony 135, 135 model B, 135 model C
  20. Kodak Pony II
  21. Kodak Pony IV
  22. Retina: see Kodak AG
  23. Retinette: see Kodak AG
  24. Kodak S100, Kodak S500AF - see Kodak S-Series
  25. Kodak Signet 30
  26. Kodak Signet 35
  27. Kodak Signet 40
  28. Kodak Signet 50
  29. Kodak Signet 80
  • Kodak Star 35 af
  • Kodak Star 35 sf
  • Kodak Star 235
  • Kodak Star 275
  • Kodak Star 335
  • Kodak Star 435
  • Kodak Star 535
  • Kodak Star 635
  • Kodak Star 735, 735R
  • Kodak Star 835AF
  • Kodak Star 875AF
  • Kodak Star 935
  • Kodak Star 1035Z, 1035ZD
  • Kodak Star 1000
  • Kodak Star Auto Focus
  • Kodak Star EF
  • Kodak Star Focus Free
  • Kodak Star Motordrive
  • Kodak Star Zoom 70, Star Zoom 105
  • Kodak Stereo
  • Kodak VR35, models K2,K2a,K4a,K5,K6,K10, K12, K14, K40, K60, K80, K300, K400, K500
  • Kodak KB series, models KB10,KB12,KB18,KB20,KB22,KB28,KB30,KB Zoom
  • Kodak KC series, models Kodak KC 30
  • Kodak "Hobby 35 mm" built-in electronic flash manual film drive and rewind plastic camera (made exclusively in Brazil and sold only throughout Latin America)
HOBBY1
DSC02452

KODAK KC30

Roll film[]

101 film[]

103 film[]

105 film[]


116 film[]

Kodak No. 2A Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model B

118 film[]

120 film[]

  • Kodak Brownie boy scout
  • Kodak Beau Brownie No.2
  • No.2 Brownie camera
  • Portrait Brownie No.2
  • No.2 Brownie Junior uk model
  • No.2 Brownie Special
  • No.2 Brownie Special Century of Progress-World s fair souvenir

120 film, folder[]


  • Pocket Kodak No. 1a
  • Pocket Kodak No. 3a
  • Pocket Kodak Junior No. 1
    Blue kodak yashicas 035

    No 1 Pocket Jr. Model B

  • Pocket Kodak Junior No. 1a
  • Pocket Kodak No. 1 series II with autographic 120 film
  • Pocket Kodak No. 1a series II
  • Pocket Kodak Special No. 1
  • Pocket Kodak Special No. 1a
  • Pocket Kodak Special No. 2c
  • Pocket Kodak Special No. 3
  • Rainbow Hawk-eye Model C
    Vintage cameras 104

    Rainbow Hawk-eye Model C


Cameras 068

No 2 Folding Cartridge Premo

120 film, box[]

122 film[]

Cameras 020

No. 3-A Folding Pocket Kodak Model B-3

123 film[]

124 film[]

127 film[]


130 film[]

616 film[]

620 film[]

  • Kodak Box 620
  • Kodak Box 620 model B (periscopic lens)
  • Kodak Box 620C (Germany)
  • Brownie 620 (made in Germany)

828 Bantam film[]

Plate and sheet film[]

Premo film pack cameras[]

Cameras 001

No. 4 Cartridge Kodak Model with View screen, used cut film plates and roll film. Photo from TreasureCollector.com

Eastman Kodak NO.4C plate Folding plate cameras[]

postcard format[]

large format[]

Cartridge film[]

126 film[]

See the Instamatic Page.

110 film[]

See also Instamatic 110 list.

  • Kodak Stylelite pocket
  • Kodak Tele-Ektra 1
  • Kodak Tele-Ektra 2
  • Kodak Tele-Ektra 32
  • Kodak Tele-Ektra 300
  • Kodak Tele-Ektra 350
  • Kodak Tele-Ektralite 20
  • Kodak Winner Pocket Camera
  • Mickey-Matic Camera
  • Pocket Instamatic 20
  • Pocket Instamatic 30
  • Pocket Instamatic 50
  • Star 110 Camera

APS film[]

See the Advantix page

Special film[]

Kodak disc film[]

Instant film[]


16mm film[]

Digital[]

just display, no optical finder[]

  • Kodak Easyshare C433, C875
  • Kodak Easyshare LS755
  • Kodak Easyshare One 4MP, 6MP
  • Kodak Easyshare V530, V570, V603, V610, V705
  • Kodak EasyShare Z885

display and optical finder[]

  • Kodak DC20, DC25, DC40, DC50 Zoom, DC120 Zoom, DC200, DC200 Plus, DC210, DC210 Plus, DC215, DC220, DC220 Pro Edition, DC240, DC260, DC260 Pro Edition, DC265, DC290, DC3200, DC3400, DC3800, DC4800, DC5000
  • Kodak Easyshare DX3215, DX3500, DX3600, DX3700, DX3900, DX4330, DX4530, DX4900, DX6340, DX6440, DX7440, DX7630
  • Kodak Easyshare CX4200, CX4210, CX4230, CX4300, CX4310, CX6200, CX6230, CX6330, CX6445, CX7220, CX7300, CX7310, CX7330, CX7430, CX7525, CX7530


  • Kodak Easyshare CW330
  • Kodak Easyshare CD33, CD40, CD43
  • Kodak Easyshare C300, C310, C315, C330, C340, C360, C503, C530, C533, C603, C643, C663, C703, C743
  • Kodak Easyshare LS420, LS443, LS633, LS743, LS753
  • Kodak Easyshare V550, V705
  • Kodak Easyshare Z700, Z730, Z760

display and electronic finder[]

DSLR[]

Nikon F mount[]

  • Kodak DCS 100 (back attached to a Nikon F3)
  • Kodak DCS 200 (back attached to a Nikon F801s/N8008s)
  • Kodak DCS 315 [back attached to Nikon Pronea 6i) (1.5MP)
  • Kodak DCS 330 [back attached to Nikon Pronea 6i) (3MP)
  • Kodak DCS 410 (back attached to a Nikon F90/N90)
  • Kodak DCS 420 (back attached to a Nikon F90/N90 or F90X/N90s)
  • Kodak DCS 460 (back attached to a Nikon F90X/N90s)
  • Kodak NC2000 (back attached to a Nikon F90/N90 or F90X/N90s)
  • Kodak NC2000e (back attached to a Nikon F90X/N90s)
  • Kodak DCS 620 / DCS 620x (based on a Nikon F5)
  • Kodak DCS 660 / DCS 660M (based on a Nikon F5)
  • Kodak DCS 720x (based on a Nikon F5)
  • Kodak DCS 760 (based on a Nikon F5)
  • Kodak DCS Pro 14n
  • Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n

Canon EF mount[]

  • Kodak EOS-DCS 1 (back attached to a Canon EOS-1N)
  • Kodak EOS-DCS 3 (back attached to a Canon EOS-1N)
  • Kodak EOS-DCS 5 (back attached to a Canon EOS-1N)
  • Kodak DCS 520 (based on a Canon EOS-1N and also sold as Canon D2000)
  • Kodak DCS 560 (based on a Canon EOS-1N)
  • Kodak DCS Pro SLR/c

Nikon Pronea mount[]

  • Kodak DCS 315 (based on a Nikon Pronea 600i)
  • Kodak DCS 330 (based on a Nikon Pronea 600i)

Notes[]

Resources[]

photography related industry in Rochester (New York)
American Camera | Bausch & Lomb | Blair | Century | Crown Optical Co. | Elgeet | Folmer & Schwing | Gassner and Marx | Graflex | Gundlach | Ilex | JML | Kodak | Milburn | Monroe | PMC | Ray | Reichenbach, Morey and Will | Rochester Camera and Supply Co. | Rochester Optical Co. | Seneca | Sunart | Walker | Wollensak
and in Rochester (Minnesota)
Conley
external links
graflex.org - Rudolf Kingslake's
"Optical industry in Rochester (N.Y.)"

Books:[]

  • KODAK Milestones, 1880-1980, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester NY, USA: 1980.
  • Coe, Brian, Kodak Cameras: The First Hundred Years, p.60, Hove Foto Books, Hove, East Sussex, UK: 1988.

Websites in English:[]

Websites in French:[]

Advertisement