End of Kodak: 133 Years Gone in a Flash

We all knew the Kodak era could not last forever. We just never expected to read the obituary.

Kodak was not a brand. It was a category. Like Xerox. Like Kleenex. It was Kodak. I shot plenty of Fujifilm in the 1980s and I shoot Fujifilm now, but Kodak was synonymous with photography itself. At its peak, 90 percent of the film and 85 percent of the cameras sold were Kodak. Remarkable does not cover it.

Now the 133 year old company has warned investors that this is pretty much the end, at least for the Kodak photographers knew. The cameras bearing the name today are like that Minolta at Costco. It says Minolta. It is not a Minolta.

This is the first camera I ever took a picture on, the Kodak Instamatic 100. Still have it. Still have the box.

Paul Simon sang about his Nikon and his Kodachrome. YouTube blocked that part. Of course it did.