There is a recent story “Not even nostalgia could save Kodak” at CNN that speaks to all the dramatic advances of technology in the past 20 years or so and specifically focuses on how those advances affected photography and Kodak.
In light of recent events regarding Kodak I’ve been thinking about the topic and have decided that I don’t want to be the last person to write an obituary, tribute (slash) critique of Kodak. My story is a personal one as I have little direct knowledge of what this company has been going through during the last 20 years or so.
Kodak’s problems may have been related to the company’s inability to adapt to the constant advances in electronics and related technologies. We all know there were a lot of big US companies that were, and remain to this day, “way behind the technology curve” and live in denial of a reality that is familiar to consumers.
The successful technology curve I’m thinking of isn’t just about technological advancement. Its actually all about having an ability to translate new technologies into consumer products that excite people’s interest and promise to serve a perceived life-style.
So I’ll dial the Wayback Machine back to the mid 1970s. That’s about the time I found my first job that paid enough to allow me to become a true, though modest, American consumer. Thankfully, in music devices, I came along at the end of eight-track tapes. It was a time when cassette tapes, component receivers and woofers were the leading edge in stereo. It was also near the time I bought my Atari 2600. That was impressive!
I was only mildly interested in photography at the time. I had used several old cameras that were in the family. Probably Kodak Brownies or a similar Kodak product. I think the first camera I bought on my own was a Kodak 126 (cartridge) “Instamatic”.
One day I was walking along 12th street and saw some interesting objects in the display window of a family optician. They looked like they might be cameras but I could not tell for sure. I walked inside and spoke with an old guy who probably owned the place. He explained that they were 35mm SLR cameras. To me they seemed to be a type of device sent from another planet.
The guy explained how they worked but I didn’t understand what he was saying or what it had to do with me taking pictures. He showed me a Japanese Ricoh and a German Leica. They had orange and white marking on a giant lens barrel and a small housing at the top. Looking down through the lens you could see it had many components within itself. He explained that the lens was actually composed of about 8 to 10 high quality glass elements that were organized into groups which functioned, in part, to manipulate light rays of various properties to all come to focus at one place. He also explained other ways they manipulated light to render the best possible image results. Impressive!
Then he showed me where the flash would attach, where the camera body attached to a tripod and how the lens could be removed and changed for other lenses with other optical capabilities. Finally he showed me the price tags. They were a small business and I understand now that they were charging full retail.
I began reading magazines such as Popular Photography to learn everything I could about those 35mm cameras and about what was happening with photography in general. This all generated within me a great desire to own a modern camera that would help me demonstrate my artistic talent and viewpoint to the world. I also learned about places such as 47th Street Photo which featured deeply discounted “mail order” prices and more brand names such as Pentax, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus and Canon. It was all very enthralling. Also, it was all too clear that Kodak had nothing to offer that could seriously compete with these brands’ products.
I settled for a Konica 35mm rangefinder as my first purchase. It bridged the gap fairly well while I taught myself more about photography and saved for the best SLR I could afford. The results of the multi-element lens did not disappoint. With this basic but good quality camera I learned about lens filters, tripods, flash photography and the properties of 35mm film.
I preferred to shoot transparencies at a rate of about 3 rolls to one of print film. It was with the film that I could afford be a true, blue American consumer thanks to Kodak. I tried some Fujifilm and some GAF and others but I always came back to good old Kodachrome and Ektachrome for transparencies and Kodak brand print film.
So quickly back to today. Film is history and, for some folks, even cameras are history as their cell phones and other devices seem perfectly adequate for taking and sharing pictures.
Looking at the whole process in this manner I can better appreciate the challenges faced in recent decades by the once unbeatable Eastman Kodak Company.
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