Fall   2005

Digital Photography Milestones from Kodak


For more than 100 years, Eastman Kodak Company has regularly brought innovation to the photography market. Much has transpired since the days of the first point-and-shoot camera. During the last 30 years alone, we have played a leading role in many digital imaging breakthroughs. While all of these “digital firsts” speak to Kodak’s ability to introduce imaginative technologies, the company prides itself on incorporating such new discoveries into products that can be enjoyed by millions of people around the globe.

1975  Kodak scientist Steve Sasson developed the world’s first digital camera prototype.

1978  At Kodak’s annual meeting of shareholders, CEO Walter Fallon showed early photographic before-and-after examples of breakthrough technology to digitize film images and improve their picture quality, pointing to a day when advanced digital imaging systems would automatically and routinely perform this function for everyday picture processing.

1979  Kodak researcher Ching Tang made the first discoveries relating to organic light emitting diodes (OLED), a promising display technology that Kodak went on to patent and incorporate into products more than two decades later.

1986  Kodak announced the development of the world's first megapixel digital sensor small enough to function in a handheld camera — a sensor that had 1.4 million pixels. In reviewing the announcement, the Wall Street Journal noted that the biggest surprise was that the technology breakthrough came from an American company.

1987  Videk, a Kodak venture company, began selling the Megaplus machine vision camera, incorporating the company's 1.4 megapixel sensor.

Kodak's Federal Systems business began selling the Kodak Hawkeye II Imaging Accessory, utilizing a Nikon F-3 camera body outfitted with Kodak's 1.4 megapixel sensor and a tethered image-processing/recording device.

1989  Kodak introduced the Kodak XL 7700 digital continuous-tone printer, a thermal dye-sublimation printer capable of printing large format, photo-quality prints from digital image files.

1990  Kodak announced the development of its Photo CD system, utilizing state-of-the-art scanning and compression technology to produce 18-megabyte photo files from negatives and transparencies, which could be custom recorded to writeable CDs.

1992  Kodak introduced the Kodak Professional DCS 200 camera, an improved version of its earlier Digital Camera System (DCS) with the electronics and recording capability combined with the camera as one handheld unit. The first customers were photojournalists.

1992  The company formally launched its Photo CD products business and also launched a separate business for recordable CDs. MCI was the first commercial customer and used CD-R for producing telephone bills for corporate accounts. Kodak also introduced the world's first low-priced 2X and 6X CD writers for business use.

1994  Kodak designed and supplied the world's first consumer-priced digital camera to Apple Computer — the Apple QuickTake 100 camera. It was quickly followed by Kodak's own DC40 digital camera.

Kodak introduced the Creation Station — a predecessor of its current Picture Maker kiosk. The consumer kiosk enabled people to scan high-quality images from slides, negatives and prints, manipulate and enhance the images and make photo-quality prints at retail locations. Today, approximately 60,000 Picture Maker kiosks have been placed in retail locations worldwide.

1995  Kodak introduces the DC40 digital camera, its first consumer-priced model.

1997  Kodak introduced the DC210, the world's first consumer megapixel digital camera, which was priced under $1,000.

The company introduced one of the first online picture services known as "Kodak Picture Network," enabling consumers to have their pictures digitized and uploaded to a personal Internet account for storage and sharing with others.

1998  Kodak began test-marketing Picture CD. People dropping off their film for processing could ask to have their photos scanned and written to a compact disc, which would be delivered with their prints and returned negatives. In addition to photos, the CDs also contained software that consumers could use on home PCs to enhance their pictures.

Kodak began offering a digital printing service through its PhotoNet Online Web site, enabling consumers to upload their digital photo files and order prints of them. A similar service known as "Quick Prints" was then added to the Kodak.com Web site, which later became the Print@Kodak service.
Kodak launched its first 3-megapixel consumer digital camera, the DC4800 zoom digital camera. The critically acclaimed point-and-shoot camera was designed with manual and automatic settings for maximum creative control and flexibility.

Kodak announced a strategic partnership with Sanyo and Ulvac to develop OLED (organic light emitting diode) flat panel display technology. This agreement was the first step towards building a broad manufacturing equipment infrastructure for the production of OLED displays, a revolutionary new technology used in advanced electronic applications.
Kodak introduced the Kodak EasyShare system, which included a breakthrough camera dock and five cameras — the DX3215, DX3500, DX3600, DX3700 and DX3900. The new EasyShare system set a standard for ease of use for digital photography, making it one-touch simple for consumers to automatically transfer pictures from the camera to the PC.

Kodak acquired Ofoto (now the Kodak EasyShare Gallery), the market leader in online photography services, to help share and print high-quality digital pictures.

Kodak EasyShare Software adds the ability to print digital images at online photofinishers.

2002  Kodak began distributing its EasyShare software for free via the Internet, for use by all digital camera users. Rapid adoption of the software has helped digital camera users to easily organize, email and print their digital pictures, whether at home or via online photofinishers.

Kodak and Olympus announced the Four Thirds System (4/3 System), which delivers interchangeable lens mount compatibility for next-generation digital camera systems.

Kodak announced the Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n digital camera, the first 13.89 megapixel digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera priced under $5,000. The camera also boasted the industry’s first 35-mm size CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor in a Nikon F-mount camera.
Kodak announced its AM550L display, incorporating a full-colour, active-matrix OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology. The first of its kind, the device represented a milestone in the evolution of displays exhibiting crisper video and greater portability. This earned Kodak the Society for Information Display’s prestigious Display of the Year Gold Award.

2003  Kodak introduced the world’s first printer dock, which creates 4 x 6-inch, real Kodak pictures directly from Kodak EasyShare digital cameras without a computer.

Kodak introduced the Kodak Picture Maker G3 digital printing kiosks allowing customers to print digital images from popular memory card formats at tens of thousands of convenient retail locations worldwide.

The Kodak Plus Digital 35 mm one-time-use camera system is launched, giving film users an easy way to enjoy the benefits of digital photography by providing them with
prints as well as digital images on a Kodak Picture CD.

2004  Kodak introduced the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Plus with the ability to print wirelessly from camera phones via infrared and Bluetooth technology. By year-end, Kodak has shipped more than two millions printer docks, making this one of the global consumer electronics industry’s fastest-growing products.

Kodak, along with Konica Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Ricoh and Sanyo, announced the ImageLink print system. This new specification allows interoperability between snapshot printers and cameras from these manufacturers, providing effortless, one-touch picture printing.

Kodak added infrared and Bluetooth wireless technology printing capability to its line of Kodak Picture Maker G3 digital printing kiosks at retail locations worldwide.

2005  Kodak introduced Kodak EasyShare-One digital camera with WiFi capability, the world’s first wireless consumer digital camera. It has the ability to e-mail images directly from the camera and to browse photo albums stored online at the Kodak EasyShare Gallery. The camera also boasted other industry-leading features such as a 3-inch touch screen LCD, an advanced user interface programmed in Flash, and 256 MB of internal memory allowing it hold up to 1500 favourite images for anytime printing or sharing. Immediately after being announced, the EasyShare-One camera earned the CNET Next Big Thing award and the G4TechTV Best of CES award.

Kodak unveiled the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Plus with w-fi capability to print wirelessly from the EasyShare-One camera and other WiFi enabled devices.


Thanks to continued innovation, Kodak now holds top market share for digital cameras, snapshot printers, picture kiosks, and online picture services in the U.S. It also climbed to the #3 position for worldwide digital camera shipments, and is the fastest-growing brand of digital cameras in the world for the second straight year.


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Kodak, Megaplus, Hawkeye, Photo CD, Kodak Professional, PhotoNet, Print@Kodak, EasyShare, EasyShare-One, and ImageLink are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company.

Media Contacts:
Carlee Harrod, Ketchum, 020 7611 3874, carlee.harrod@ketchum.com
Ali O’Neill, Ketchum, 020 7611 3610, alison.oneill@ketchum.com
Jennie Wild, Kodak, 01442 846754, jennie.wild@kodak.com


Kodak.com


Gallery One PR Release with a selection of Photogrpher's images

Opening Reception Event - New York City - London