Growing up in the Philippines, the word Kodak is actually a verb meaning 'to take a photograph': "Mag pa-Kodak ta!" Meaning, "Let's take a photograph!"
I have no idea how anyone could stumble on how to go about making color film and how they figured out all the different chemical processes in order to develop photos is absolutely mind boggling
Gotta say though, they weren't the only ones. After WW2 they took a lot of secret formulas and scientists from Agfa in Germany with them. Kodachrome isn't one of those though. That is pure kodak.
Kodak had a genius in 1975 who literally gave them the biggest ticket to everlasting wealth and another genius who wrote a report in 1979 (Larry Matteson) who expected that there would be a complete shift to digital cameras by 2010 (which happened, the only thing that they couldn't possibly predict was the rise of iPhone and other smartphones). And the executives were still stubborn like a rock. Like are we serious? Sometimes I feel like executives shouldn't hold any power for this reason, they most of the time don't know anything they are talking about except seeing money numbers go up and lick investors buttholes.
This is one of the reasons that Apple is so successful, not being afraid to cannibalise their own sales. The iPhone killed iPod sales, but the iPhone reigns supreme as the number 1 smartphone in several markets. They ultimately went from the brink of bankruptcy in the 90s to worlds most valuable company just over a decade later. Kodak could've done the same
Kodak did try to move to digital. There were the first and only maker of professional digital cameras in the 90's. The tech was too new, and the market too small, so Kodak bet on compact digital point and shoots, which themseleves were killed by camera phones.
@@JonasHamill Apple is protecting their Macbook 13 inch though from the iPad by limiting iPad capabilities, so its definitely NOT true that Apple cannibalises their sales, in fact Apple kept selling the iPod for long as possible and tried reviving it multiple times, what ultimately took it down was the fact other phone manufacturers like Samsung and HTC included headphone jacks, expandable storage and good DAC's in their phone.
This is why I love photography for the people, it does not have to be artistically perfect, it just has to tell a story. And ordinary people are frankly, naturally talented in doing just that, taking picture, of a moment.
The big problem is that kodak was never really a tech company at heart. They were most focused in the area of chemistry, even when they did start focusing in on digital tech they did not have the people that sony or canon had in the tech world to make it great.
Kodak is from Rochester, and even though its incorporated in NJ, its still headquartered there. They never left, which I love, even if they've faded more into obscurity.
There was one little ad they showed in the video that mentioned how Rochester was "the Kodak City." That was still very true for me growing up in the early 90s. If your parents didn't work at Kodak, you knew someone whose parents did.
In the 80s and 90s my Mom would only buy Kodak film for our cameras. There was a photo processing shop next to my school, and so we would go get our travel album after she picked me up from school. And then digital came and advanced so quickly, when I travelled to the UK as a teen in 2004 I already had my first digital camera with me. It took pretty great pictures (had macro, night mode etc too). These days I have a DSLR and several old film cameras. I develop films in my bathroom with no window, it's a hassle. So I mostly use my phone like everyone else.
You left out the whole history of instant photographs popularized by Polaroid. Kodak tried making an instant film camera line, but got sued by Polaroid. This suit was a major factor in Kodak's fall in the 1970s and 80s, before digital cameras came on the market.
@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407 Shaking a Polaroid photo was never a required step of development. It didn't make it go faster and it could lead to worse results as it disrupted the even distribution of the chemistry.
@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407Instax is Fujifilm though. And Instax is actually the successor of the Kodak instant photo format, as Kodak somehow managed to sell their technology to Fuji in Japan amidst being sued by Polaroid.
Wild to see this video coming out now as I've been inching my way, along a few of my friends, into film photography for the past few months after finding one of my dad's old camera.
Thank you! Even though it pains me to say it, this informative, but highly informative and compact explanation, helps me replace a lesson I once taught in my high school photography classes in an interesting, visually stimulating and entertaining way.
At the beginning of 21st century where everything is going digital, everyone thought that having your photos in digital format is easier to share and preserve, as it turned out how easily data can be permanently lost on a harddrive failure, a carefully preserved analog photograph in an album is probably going to have longer lifespan, and the sentimentality created by holding a piece of decades old piece of history simply hits different.
Comparing a hard drive and "a carefully preserved analog photograph" is not a fair comparison. A properly backup up and maintained hard drive will outlast any physical media, it just takes more effort to keep things maintained and up to date.
I remember reading my public museum's website about 20 years ago. They were practically begging people to bring in their digital cameras to let them have copies of their pictures. The museum has a lot of old pictures, and their favorites are the snapshots of everyday life. They didn't want to lose our pictures because they never came off a digital camera that eventually dies. With smartphones, social media and the cloud, not as many pictures are being left behind on a device and lost anymore.
Today, there is a Kodak branded 35mm film camera called the Ektar H35 that’s only like $50 and takes awesome pictures! I highly recommend it for anyone who’s interested in taking pictures on film!!
@@Game_Hero There are a whole bunch of places online where you can get film... and a whole lot of mail-in film developers... I personally use a place called "Reformed Film Lab" to do both; they sell cameras, film, and accessories AND you can send them your film rolls to have them developed! They have an app to make ordering pretty easy, and they always offer deals!
@@Game_Hero When it comes to 35mm film recommendations, I usually use Kodak's Porta 400. I'll sometimes throw in CineStill 800T if I know I'll be taking pictures in low-light conditions or at nighttime
@@Game_Hero C-41 color 35mm film is quite common now along with having it developed. Film can be purchased online like everything these days but there are photography shops that do sell it in person, including the one I go to personally the B&H superstore in NYC. You can also have film mailed for development to various labs around the county or if you're in a major city you can drop it off in person. Drugstores like CVS are no longer recommended.
Having inherited my great grandmother's Kodak Junior Six-16 Series II camera, I've gotten back into film photography despite most of my work being in the digital world. While the film it was designed to take was discontinued in the mid 1980's, the magic of 3D printing has allowed me to add adapters to use 120 film in the camera. It's been so interesting to see the world through a film lens again, but with it only able to take 6 shots on a roll, it's rather expensive between the cost of the film, processing, and scanning working out to each exposure costing roughly $5. I felt like I needed to get a more "modern" 35mm film camera to continue the film experience at a significantly lower cost per image. If nothing else, it makes each shot a little more intentional because the inherent "cost per click" means I'm not going to snap my lunch with a film camera.
One of the biggest downsides to smartphones in my opinion, is that the fact everyone has a camera easily available has made photos not feel nearly as special or unique anymore
Red Dead Redemption 2 Arthur Morgan Camera that you take photo in the game is inspiration from kodak snapshot camera and model looks identically same but with slight adjustment 0:04
I have a Kodak digital frame, 7-in. diameter, that has been running 24 hours a day for about 20-25 years (no motion sensor to turn it off). Still working. The website to load new photos onto the Wi-Fi-enabled frame hasn't been working for about 10 years(?). But it has a memory card slot and unlike some other brands I have tried, it just keeps chugging along. Same for my 15-year-old Nix digital frame, 18-in diagonal. It's bigger than a small TV screen was, when I was a kid! It has a motion sensor.
History repeating itself, years ago I got interested in film, and a lot of people too. But film prices were rising, people opt to buy old digital cameras. Idk but for me, the quality and long process of film and digital cameras exudes more emotions to my photos rather than my phone camera no matter how clearer and easier the pictures get taken 😅. Something about the whole process of film photography and not knowing the result, getting surprised of the moments you have seemed to forget you took them. Old digital cameras just have a better flash overall than phone cameras as well
Nice video! Vox is also dying like Kodak. It no longer has that great team which consistently delivered such high quality content over the last 10 years.
Vox please bring back Joss Fong, Ranjani Chakroborty, Estelle Caswell, Johnny Harris, Phil Edwards and all the other names that I'm unable to think from the top of my head
An Engineer at Kodak developed the first portable digital camera in the 70s but management didn't want to pursue it because they thought a consumer product would cannibalise their film sales. They tried to build a digital camera brand in the early 2000s with EasyShare but it was way too late by then. Sony, Nikon, Canon and even Fuji had massive head starts.
Nah, it's mostly a myth that Kodak stuck their heads in the sand and refused to accept digital, but it keeps getting repeated so it's taken as fact. Kodak was actually one of first producers of consumer digital cameras with their DC/DCS line and by 2005 were the #1 seller of digital cameras. What really did them in was an influx of Chinese and Japanese competitors as well as camera phones killing the profitably of consumer-level cameras.
I have a Kodak No. 2 Brownie in my camera collection! It really is easy to use and can take some pretty decent pictures without many settings or even a lens.
I think one point this video misses is that now, unlike 20-100 years ago the average person buying a camera no longer buys a dedicated camera. They buy a smartphone.
It makes sense that Kodak didn't embrace digital cameras. New tech that could disrupt your business is unappealing. The company got big selling camera film, and had all the momentum to avoid changing course. Kodak ultimate leading to a small company focused on a niche product, while the rest of photography sector pivots to digital.
Kodak did not focus on Printing services. Just like Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, Leica etc. Kodak's main source of revenue is catering to the medical industry. Kodak has always dominated the roll film industry and now that Fuji Film seems to be exiting in favor of it's in-camera recipes, will be the only major producer of color film left. Kodak also makes far more revenue from Hollywood, who's studios are increasingly using film to shoot movies again, than selling products to the general public.
There's an irony here with the final segment. It's a little different here but shows how TH-cam isn't working as well as it did with content creators now heading back to the 'sign-up' and pay a fee subscription service similar to the early internet days. Just as reels of film went from being sent off, to immediately in-hand, and back again, we're seeing internet content/film makers do a similar thing. You could make the argument for cable television moving to streaming services, and essentially back again with these services acting as cable.
Alhazen, known as Ibn al-Haytham, was a pioneering Arab scientist and mathematician from the 10th century. He is most famous for his work in optics, particularly for explaining how vision works and for discovering the principle of the camera. Ibn al-Haytham invented the "camera obscura," a dark room or box with a small hole that allows light to pass through, projecting an inverted image on the opposite wall. This groundbreaking work laid the foundation for modern cameras and significantly advanced the study of light and vision. His contributions have earned him recognition as one of the fathers of optics.
I live in Warsaw, Poland and we have a place that offers development of film and the digital scan of the frames in a really short period of time, even in an hour. Analog photography is really popular again in my opinion and it’s not that hard to find a place to develop film, even in small cities.
People often say that kodak did nothing to adapt to digital photography, that isn't entirely true though, they did make a lot of digital cameras through the 2000s and honestly have some fairly good point and shoot cameras. The thing is, kodak didn't compete much in the professional and high end camera market. Also they did still sell media like SD cards, even if not nearly at the same scale as film. The advent of the smart phone camera however, really killed their cheap point and shoot cameras. They even made a lot of professional digital backs for film cameras of the 90s.
"...[A] Kodak #1 would set you back... the equivalent of more than $800 today." Slightly less than I paid for my Nikon P1000, and I get 125x Zoom and with my 64 GB SD card I have the capacity to store over 7,000 photos.
The No .1 Kodak was preceded by the Eastman Detective camera in 1887 and the original Kodak camera introduced in January 1888. The No.2 came in October 1889, along with the No.1 Kodak, which was an improved newly shuttered version of the original Kodak. You could say that the No.1 is actually No.3. The fifty Detective cameras produced were not marketed.
William Henry Jackson, who was the first to photograph Yellowstone in 1871 said in his memoir “The Pioneer Photographer” (1929) how much he would have loved to have had something as convenient (and as good) as a Brownie in place of his wagon of glass plates and mobile darkroom.
I got a "Brownie Bullet Camera" when I was five or six years old. And yes, it took square pictures. I wondered about that "Bullet" in the name, though. Could it have been related to that previous meaning of "snapshot"?
Nice, short summary but characterizing film as being used only by hobbyists is simply incorrect. There are plenty of pros, from portraiture to fashion to landscape photography who use from today for is unmatched rendering of images and for the medium and large format options that simply don't exist in social. Not too mention directors like Tarantino, Spielberg, Nolan, Anderson, Scorsese, just to mention a few, who use exclusively film for their movies.
I guess we've come a bit full circle then with digital being like the snapshot camera of old? I still shoot film myself and am forced to drop it off at the nearest camera shop to be mailed out. Development labs aren't dead yet but there are much fewer now for sure.
Today I learned that US English pronounces NICHE as "nich" and not "neesh" as it is in British English. Dictionary web sites confirm both are correct though "neesh" is closer to the original French verb "nicher" (to nest).
Paper. Well, pulp that becomes paper. Think like paper money. It probably had cotton (aka linen) or flax fibers mixed in as well. To this day, there's a faux suede made of just cotton fabric that has been treated in a special way.
A wise gentleman once said “Me not working hard? Yeah, right picture that with a Kodak. And better yet, go to Times Square, Take a picture of me with a Kodak”
Fun fact: along with not moving with the times and beginning arrogant they fell behind in the tech world, one of Kodak's downfall in Rochester was racism and nepotism within the company 😄
Can we talk about how "You press the button, we do the rest" is freaking brilliant marketing?!? In 1888?!?!
The backbone of marketing back then was clever solgans
Olden days had such good, clever and catchy marketing slogans. Love it
Can you? Go on.
Let's talk about how you used bots to upvote this super-generic comment to promote your own channel.
i literally came here to say this! That was a brilliant slogan that'd fit right in today!
Growing up in the Philippines, the word Kodak is actually a verb meaning 'to take a photograph':
"Mag pa-Kodak ta!"
Meaning, "Let's take a photograph!"
I was looking for this. My grandmother uses it all the time even for smartphones.
that's why they called photographers why back as "Kodaker"
gikodakan, kodaki, etc.
Is the term only in bisaya though? Never thought of this before
@@anric it is. It's Bisaya
Filipinos have a tendency to use brand names to replace their typical English term such as Xerox, Orocan, and Frigidaire!
Kodak moment is a term that worked its way into my personal lexicon
I have a Kodak No 1A camera on my bookshelf I found at a thrift store. It’s so cool to see that technology. Now we all have cameras on our phones.
I have no idea how anyone could stumble on how to go about making color film and how they figured out all the different chemical processes in order to develop photos is absolutely mind boggling
Gotta say though, they weren't the only ones. After WW2 they took a lot of secret formulas and scientists from Agfa in Germany with them.
Kodachrome isn't one of those though. That is pure kodak.
Kodak had a genius in 1975 who literally gave them the biggest ticket to everlasting wealth and another genius who wrote a report in 1979 (Larry Matteson) who expected that there would be a complete shift to digital cameras by 2010 (which happened, the only thing that they couldn't possibly predict was the rise of iPhone and other smartphones). And the executives were still stubborn like a rock. Like are we serious? Sometimes I feel like executives shouldn't hold any power for this reason, they most of the time don't know anything they are talking about except seeing money numbers go up and lick investors buttholes.
This is one of the reasons that Apple is so successful, not being afraid to cannibalise their own sales. The iPhone killed iPod sales, but the iPhone reigns supreme as the number 1 smartphone in several markets. They ultimately went from the brink of bankruptcy in the 90s to worlds most valuable company just over a decade later. Kodak could've done the same
Kodak did try to move to digital. There were the first and only maker of professional digital cameras in the 90's. The tech was too new, and the market too small, so Kodak bet on compact digital point and shoots, which themseleves were killed by camera phones.
@JonasHamill
Microsoft saved them by loaning them $$$
@@Jsoberon Exactly! Kodak did focus on digital but in the wrong areas which was what ultimately led to their downfall.
@@JonasHamill
Apple is protecting their Macbook 13 inch though from the iPad by limiting iPad capabilities, so its definitely NOT true that Apple cannibalises their sales, in fact Apple kept selling the iPod for long as possible and tried reviving it multiple times, what ultimately took it down was the fact other phone manufacturers like Samsung and HTC included headphone jacks, expandable storage and good DAC's in their phone.
This is why I love photography for the people, it does not have to be artistically perfect, it just has to tell a story. And ordinary people are frankly, naturally talented in doing just that, taking picture, of a moment.
1992: Kodak is 18th on the Fortune 500. 2002: Kodak isn't even on the list. 2012: Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sadge
2016: They have the worst verse of the XXL Freshman Class Cypher
@@CantBanDaSnoManvery funny
You can thank phone cameras and increasing competition for that
The big problem is that kodak was never really a tech company at heart. They were most focused in the area of chemistry, even when they did start focusing in on digital tech they did not have the people that sony or canon had in the tech world to make it great.
I come across so many stills 8mm vhs thrown away at the recycling center I work at on the weekend. Thank you for a great history lesson
"stills 8mm vhs"?
@@TinLeadHammerMaybe they meant to say “stills, 8mm’ and vhs”. that’s the only thing that would make sense to me at least.
@@bluekai9577
He might be talking about the Video8 which was a VHS tape for camcorders, and it had ability to record images as well as video.
It's sad. An historical center should look at them first.
Really cool video as always, but it felt really short this time...
I would watch hours and hours about this subject!
I felt the same! I am left with wanting more 😄
Good point. Maybe he'll read your comment and do a followup. I started wondering about Rochester NY and Polaroid.
Oh, you didn’t get your money’s worth?
Kodak is from Rochester, and even though its incorporated in NJ, its still headquartered there. They never left, which I love, even if they've faded more into obscurity.
That's kinda 🔥
The organic solvents they dumped into ground will surely remain there for decades if not centuries.
There was one little ad they showed in the video that mentioned how Rochester was "the Kodak City." That was still very true for me growing up in the early 90s. If your parents didn't work at Kodak, you knew someone whose parents did.
In the 80s and 90s my Mom would only buy Kodak film for our cameras. There was a photo processing shop next to my school, and so we would go get our travel album after she picked me up from school. And then digital came and advanced so quickly, when I travelled to the UK as a teen in 2004 I already had my first digital camera with me. It took pretty great pictures (had macro, night mode etc too). These days I have a DSLR and several old film cameras. I develop films in my bathroom with no window, it's a hassle. So I mostly use my phone like everyone else.
You left out the whole history of instant photographs popularized by Polaroid. Kodak tried making an instant film camera line, but got sued by Polaroid. This suit was a major factor in Kodak's fall in the 1970s and 80s, before digital cameras came on the market.
interesting
Oh yeah they didn't talk about Polaroid! Which is still going strong today, with the new instax that doesn't require shaking lol
@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407 Shaking a Polaroid photo was never a required step of development. It didn't make it go faster and it could lead to worse results as it disrupted the even distribution of the chemistry.
@@SeanLamb-I-Am So... why did people do that back then 🤔
@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407Instax is Fujifilm though. And Instax is actually the successor of the Kodak instant photo format, as Kodak somehow managed to sell their technology to Fuji in Japan amidst being sued by Polaroid.
Wild to see this video coming out now as I've been inching my way, along a few of my friends, into film photography for the past few months after finding one of my dad's old camera.
The writing and research of this is already great but the illustrations, photos and editing really push it over the edge to truly amazing!!
Thank you! Even though it pains me to say it, this informative, but highly informative and compact explanation, helps me replace a lesson I once taught in my high school photography classes in an interesting, visually stimulating and entertaining way.
He’s such a versatile artist , I enjoy skrt skrt
At the beginning of 21st century where everything is going digital, everyone thought that having your photos in digital format is easier to share and preserve, as it turned out how easily data can be permanently lost on a harddrive failure, a carefully preserved analog photograph in an album is probably going to have longer lifespan, and the sentimentality created by holding a piece of decades old piece of history simply hits different.
Comparing a hard drive and "a carefully preserved analog photograph" is not a fair comparison. A properly backup up and maintained hard drive will outlast any physical media, it just takes more effort to keep things maintained and up to date.
I remember reading my public museum's website about 20 years ago. They were practically begging people to bring in their digital cameras to let them have copies of their pictures. The museum has a lot of old pictures, and their favorites are the snapshots of everyday life. They didn't want to lose our pictures because they never came off a digital camera that eventually dies.
With smartphones, social media and the cloud, not as many pictures are being left behind on a device and lost anymore.
3-2-1 backup strategy. Problem solved.
The thumbnail photo depicts someone with an 8mm movie camera, not a still camera. Not sure what bothers me about that, but...
Maybe they choose a wrong one
Or used it as reference
I still have my Mom's Brownie camera that she used in the ‘30’s as a teenager.
Today, there is a Kodak branded 35mm film camera called the Ektar H35 that’s only like $50 and takes awesome pictures! I highly recommend it for anyone who’s interested in taking pictures on film!!
how do you get film for it? And how do you develop them?
@@Game_Hero There are a whole bunch of places online where you can get film... and a whole lot of mail-in film developers... I personally use a place called "Reformed Film Lab" to do both; they sell cameras, film, and accessories AND you can send them your film rolls to have them developed! They have an app to make ordering pretty easy, and they always offer deals!
@@Game_Hero When it comes to 35mm film recommendations, I usually use Kodak's Porta 400. I'll sometimes throw in CineStill 800T if I know I'll be taking pictures in low-light conditions or at nighttime
@@Game_Hero C-41 color 35mm film is quite common now along with having it developed. Film can be purchased online like everything these days but there are photography shops that do sell it in person, including the one I go to personally the B&H superstore in NYC. You can also have film mailed for development to various labs around the county or if you're in a major city you can drop it off in person. Drugstores like CVS are no longer recommended.
This was an especially good video. Great length, great pacing.
Wonderful show. It’s incredible how much information can be transmitted in six minutes. Excellent writing and editing.
Brillant video and editing as always thanks !
This is so well done as always. I'll be sharing with my students!
I still find it amazing even as someone born in the 80s
Let's have a KODAK moment! Sigh, I miss those days of disposable cameras 😁
I wish we still have one hour photo places. Id take soooo many more film pictures if I didnt have to mail out my rolls
I've been a hobbyist since the 80's but until today didn't know about the No.1, No. 2 and Brownie. Thanks Vox!
Having inherited my great grandmother's Kodak Junior Six-16 Series II camera, I've gotten back into film photography despite most of my work being in the digital world. While the film it was designed to take was discontinued in the mid 1980's, the magic of 3D printing has allowed me to add adapters to use 120 film in the camera. It's been so interesting to see the world through a film lens again, but with it only able to take 6 shots on a roll, it's rather expensive between the cost of the film, processing, and scanning working out to each exposure costing roughly $5. I felt like I needed to get a more "modern" 35mm film camera to continue the film experience at a significantly lower cost per image. If nothing else, it makes each shot a little more intentional because the inherent "cost per click" means I'm not going to snap my lunch with a film camera.
One of the biggest downsides to smartphones in my opinion, is that the fact everyone has a camera easily available has made photos not feel nearly as special or unique anymore
Red Dead Redemption 2 Arthur Morgan Camera that you take photo in the game is inspiration from kodak snapshot camera and model looks identically same but with slight adjustment 0:04
Kodak makes some of the best film I have ever worked with. As far as I know they still make film.
They do! I still shoot film every once in a while when. When I feel that it’s financially acceptable of course lol.
@@bluekai9577is it ever financially acceptable? 🥲 I’ve only shot film for 4 years and ultramax and gold prices have gone up at least 50%
I have a Kodak digital frame, 7-in. diameter, that has been running 24 hours a day for about 20-25 years (no motion sensor to turn it off). Still working. The website to load new photos onto the Wi-Fi-enabled frame hasn't been working for about 10 years(?). But it has a memory card slot and unlike some other brands I have tried, it just keeps chugging along. Same for my 15-year-old Nix digital frame, 18-in diagonal. It's bigger than a small TV screen was, when I was a kid! It has a motion sensor.
History repeating itself, years ago I got interested in film, and a lot of people too. But film prices were rising, people opt to buy old digital cameras. Idk but for me, the quality and long process of film and digital cameras exudes more emotions to my photos rather than my phone camera no matter how clearer and easier the pictures get taken 😅. Something about the whole process of film photography and not knowing the result, getting surprised of the moments you have seemed to forget you took them. Old digital cameras just have a better flash overall than phone cameras as well
Great story keep us bringing us content like this 🤟😁❤❤
My sincere thanks for sharing it.
Many Hollywood movies are still shot on Kodak film...
Becouse they are one of 5 manufacturers
My name is Kodak but you know that already
Vox Rocks, and Dude with the Tats does too. 😮
Nice video! Vox is also dying like Kodak. It no longer has that great team which consistently delivered such high quality content over the last 10 years.
Vox please bring back Joss Fong, Ranjani Chakroborty, Estelle Caswell, Johnny Harris, Phil Edwards and all the other names that I'm unable to think from the top of my head
They ain’t got that cash anymore
geez, harsh.
I got a 1970s Kodak passed down by my grandpa, hopefully can earn a lot from it.
I thought I heard they could have also released a digital camera too, but didn't. They probably would have been a monopoly back then.
An Engineer at Kodak developed the first portable digital camera in the 70s but management didn't want to pursue it because they thought a consumer product would cannibalise their film sales.
They tried to build a digital camera brand in the early 2000s with EasyShare but it was way too late by then. Sony, Nikon, Canon and even Fuji had massive head starts.
Nah, it's mostly a myth that Kodak stuck their heads in the sand and refused to accept digital, but it keeps getting repeated so it's taken as fact. Kodak was actually one of first producers of consumer digital cameras with their DC/DCS line and by 2005 were the #1 seller of digital cameras. What really did them in was an influx of Chinese and Japanese competitors as well as camera phones killing the profitably of consumer-level cameras.
Great video!!!!
I still shoot Kodak Ektar and Ektarchrome films. A medium format negative is still far sharper than all but the most expensive $10k+ digital cameras.
Sir John Herschel is was the first to use the term "snapshot" in relation to photography in his 1860 article "Instantaneous Photography".
I have a No. 2 Brownie and use it all the time. The film is still made by Kodak and others.
I have a Kodak No. 2 Brownie in my camera collection! It really is easy to use and can take some pretty decent pictures without many settings or even a lens.
I think one point this video misses is that now, unlike 20-100 years ago the average person buying a camera no longer buys a dedicated camera. They buy a smartphone.
still waiting for the part where they tell "how kodak invented the snapshot"
It makes sense that Kodak didn't embrace digital cameras. New tech that could disrupt your business is unappealing. The company got big selling camera film, and had all the momentum to avoid changing course. Kodak ultimate leading to a small company focused on a niche product, while the rest of photography sector pivots to digital.
Kodak did not focus on Printing services. Just like Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, Leica etc. Kodak's main source of revenue is catering to the medical industry. Kodak has always dominated the roll film industry and now that Fuji Film seems to be exiting in favor of it's in-camera recipes, will be the only major producer of color film left. Kodak also makes far more revenue from Hollywood, who's studios are increasingly using film to shoot movies again, than selling products to the general public.
KODAK & NOKIA are the prime example of - *"If you don't adapt, you'll be left behind"* ... glad kodak making it come back with film & printers 🖨 👌😊
Shout out George Eastman! The man changed the world! 🎉
There's an irony here with the final segment. It's a little different here but shows how TH-cam isn't working as well as it did with content creators now heading back to the 'sign-up' and pay a fee subscription service similar to the early internet days. Just as reels of film went from being sent off, to immediately in-hand, and back again, we're seeing internet content/film makers do a similar thing. You could make the argument for cable television moving to streaming services, and essentially back again with these services acting as cable.
Alhazen, known as Ibn al-Haytham, was a pioneering Arab scientist and mathematician from the 10th century. He is most famous for his work in optics, particularly for explaining how vision works and for discovering the principle of the camera. Ibn al-Haytham invented the "camera obscura," a dark room or box with a small hole that allows light to pass through, projecting an inverted image on the opposite wall. This groundbreaking work laid the foundation for modern cameras and significantly advanced the study of light and vision. His contributions have earned him recognition as one of the fathers of optics.
Nice history, thank you!
Love it❤❤❤. Excellent content
I live in Warsaw, Poland and we have a place that offers development of film and the digital scan of the frames in a really short period of time, even in an hour. Analog photography is really popular again in my opinion and it’s not that hard to find a place to develop film, even in small cities.
People often say that kodak did nothing to adapt to digital photography, that isn't entirely true though, they did make a lot of digital cameras through the 2000s and honestly have some fairly good point and shoot cameras. The thing is, kodak didn't compete much in the professional and high end camera market. Also they did still sell media like SD cards, even if not nearly at the same scale as film. The advent of the smart phone camera however, really killed their cheap point and shoot cameras. They even made a lot of professional digital backs for film cameras of the 90s.
Really just so cool
I remember learning how to process film in High school in a darkroom. Seems like ages ago.
"...[A] Kodak #1 would set you back... the equivalent of more than $800 today." Slightly less than I paid for my Nikon P1000, and I get 125x Zoom and with my 64 GB SD card I have the capacity to store over 7,000 photos.
This is beyond cool....look what they started!!~!
The No .1 Kodak was preceded by the Eastman Detective camera in 1887 and the original Kodak camera introduced in January 1888.
The No.2 came in October 1889, along with the No.1 Kodak, which was an improved newly shuttered version of the original Kodak. You could say that the No.1 is actually No.3. The fifty Detective cameras produced were not marketed.
5:14 its called niche (Neesh) not nitch
Digging that Ernest Tubb print
William Henry Jackson, who was the first to photograph Yellowstone in 1871 said in his memoir “The Pioneer Photographer” (1929) how much he would have loved to have had something as convenient (and as good) as a Brownie in place of his wagon of glass plates and mobile darkroom.
My Grandma gave me her old Kodak Brownie ❣️
Pro tip turn on manual focus and it will stay focused even if players get in between
Snapshot - I had never associated the term with hunting but of course that's exactly what it is. A quick shot without aim st a moving target. 🤯
Nice nostalgic moment watching this clip. I still have my darkroom gear stored in the atic. Just can't seem to part with it.
I actually first learned about this from the movie “One Hour Photo” starring Robin Williams
*That Must Be Where The Saying, Kodaks Moment Comes From.* 📸
That create the KODAK MOMENT
I got a "Brownie Bullet Camera" when I was five or six years old. And yes, it took square pictures. I wondered about that "Bullet" in the name, though. Could it have been related to that previous meaning of "snapshot"?
Well done 😮
I worked for a Company that has more History than most alive.The pictures on the Wall alone.😉💯✌️
Fantastic
Nice, short summary but characterizing film as being used only by hobbyists is simply incorrect. There are plenty of pros, from portraiture to fashion to landscape photography who use from today for is unmatched rendering of images and for the medium and large format options that simply don't exist in social. Not too mention directors like Tarantino, Spielberg, Nolan, Anderson, Scorsese, just to mention a few, who use exclusively film for their movies.
So interesting!!!
3:11 - the original 'Shot on iPhone' campaign
I guess we've come a bit full circle then with digital being like the snapshot camera of old?
I still shoot film myself and am forced to drop it off at the nearest camera shop to be mailed out. Development labs aren't dead yet but there are much fewer now for sure.
KODAK is the best always. 🎉.
Interesting
Let's settle it, people weren't allowed to smile in photos until Kodak came along!
Kodak was so influential that in our local language, Bisaya, kodak is a verb that means take a photo
Today I learned that US English pronounces NICHE as "nich" and not "neesh" as it is in British English.
Dictionary web sites confirm both are correct though "neesh" is closer to the original French verb "nicher" (to nest).
Isn't it a bit strange for Kodak to use paintings and illustrations in its early advertisements? 🤔
i’m feeling pretty advanced with my Voigtländer Brilliant 😏
Last time I was this early I ended up with my son
Best comment ever!
5:14 niche is pronounced "neesh"
2:40 What was faux leather made of before plastic was invented?
Paper. Well, pulp that becomes paper. Think like paper money. It probably had cotton (aka linen) or flax fibers mixed in as well. To this day, there's a faux suede made of just cotton fabric that has been treated in a special way.
Thanks, folks
I wonder if the marketing idea with the Brownie was to show that it was so easy that a child could do it.
Circular photos are very cool..
And, no vintage pictures of a plate of food were found 😂😂😂
"You press the button, and WE'LL TAKE CARE of your data!" -Tech companies and smartphone manufacturers.
A wise gentleman once said “Me not working hard? Yeah, right picture that with a Kodak. And better yet, go to Times Square, Take a picture of me with a Kodak”
Fun fact: along with not moving with the times and beginning arrogant they fell behind in the tech world, one of Kodak's downfall in Rochester was racism and nepotism within the company 😄
Great 👍🏻