"Light makes
photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know
it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography."
- George Eastman
Let’s start for
the beginning, The Eastman Dry Plate and
Film Company was founded by George Eastman in 1881 as a partnership with Henry A Strong (a family friend and
buggy/whip manufacturer). Trying to pursue the goal to make photography “as
convenient as the pencil”.
1885 EASTMAN American Film was introduced, the first
transparent photographic “film” as we know it today.
1888 The name “Kodak” was born and the Kodak camera
was placed in the market with the slogan, “you press the button, we do the rest”.
George Eastman put the first simple camera into the hands of a world of
costumers, introducing the snapshot photography.
1889 The first commercial transparent roll film, was
put on the market. The availability of this flexible film made possible the
development of Thomas Edison’s
motion picture camera 1891, characterizing
it as a pioneer in Motion Pictures.
1892 The company became Eastman Kodak Company of New
York.
1896 The first film especially coated for motion
picture use was marketed.
1898 The Folding Pocket KODAK Camera is launched, now
considered the ancestor off al modern roll-film cameras. It produced a 2 1/4 by
3 1/4-inch negative, which remained the standard size for decades.
1900 The first of the famous BROWNIE Camera was introduced.
It cost 1 dollar and used film that was sold for 15 vents a roll. For the first
time, the hobby of photography was available for everyone.
1902 Improving the develop of photography, The KODAK
Developing Machine was launch, and made it possible for amateurs to process
their own film without a darkroom.
1903 KODAK Non-Curling Film, which would remain the
standard for amateur photography for nearly 30 years, was introduced.
1908 The world’s first commercially practical safety
film is produced, using cellulose acetate base, instead of the flammable
cellulose nitrate base.
1913 The introduction of EASTMAN Portrait Film began
a transition to the use of sheet film instead of glass plates for professional
photographers.
1917 Kodak developed aerial cameras and trained
aerial photographers for the U.S. Signal Corps during World War I. Eastman also
offered the U.S. Navy supplies of cellulose acetate for coating airplane wings
and producing unbreakable lenses for gas masks.
1923 Kodak made amateur motion pictures practical
with the introduction of 16 mm reversal film on cellulose acetate (safety)
base, the first 16 mm CINE-KODAK Motion Picture Camera, and the KODASCOPE
Projector. The immediate popularity of 16 mm movies resulted in a network of
Kodak processing laboratories throughout the world.
1926 Kodak launches its panchromatic film in black
and white, allowing a scale far greater than the current colors.
1927 Kodak acquired the film production company “Glanzfilm
AG” in Berlin and at the end of 1931 Dr. august Nagel’s camera in Stuttgart. The
cameras produced there, now under the regency of Kodak, had added the words “Dr.
Nagel-Stuttgart Werk”.
NOW, HOLD ON TO YOUR
SEATS, BECAUSE HERE COMES COLOR!!
1928 Motion pictures in color became a reality for
amateur cinematographers with the introduction of 16 mm KODACOLOR Film, which was associated with an early additive color
motion process. “The process used a
special panchromatic black-and-white film stock used with the emulsion away
from the lens. The film base in front of the emulsion was embossed with a mass
of tiny lenses, the purpose of which was to form small images of a striped filter
which was attached to the camera lens. The filter had three colored stripes
(red, green and blue-violet); when an exposure was made the varying proportion
of each color reflected from the subject passed through the filter and was
recorded on the film beneath each of the embossed lenses as areas of strips in
groups of three, each strip varying in density according to the received color
value (Dufaycolor used similar principles, but had the filter as part of the
film itself). The original KODACOLOR film required an exposure of about a 1/30
second at f/1.9 in bright sunlight representing a film 'speed' (sensitivity) in
modern terms of about 0.5 ISO. The physical movement of the film through the
gate (frame-advance) requires additional time. The later SUPER SENSITIVE KODACOLOR could be used "outdoors in any good
photographic light, and even indoors under favorable conditions.””
Lenticular
Kodacolor was phased out after the introduction of 16 mm Kodachrome film in
1935, that we’ll see later.
1929 Kodak marketed its first film designed for
making then-new “sound” motion pictures.
1932 The first 8 mm amateur motion picture film,
cameras and projectors were introduced. This year, George Eastman died, leaving
his entire residual estate to the University of Rochester.
1933 Kodak and Western Electric jointly
commercialized high-speed industrial photography with a high-speed camera,
synchronized with an electric timer.
1934 Kodak A.G. (Germany) introduced the first of
its 35 mm precision KODAK RETINA Cameras.
1935 Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky developed
the KODACHROME Film, a color
reversal stock for movie and slide film, that became the first commercially successful
amateur color film. It was initially offered in 16 mm format for motion
pictures; 35 mm slides and 8 mm home movies followed in 1936. It’s projection
method was Subtractive (3 color).
1941 Kodak marketed the versatile KODAK EKTRA Camera, with a
shutter-speed range from 1/1000 to 1 second. ♦ Airgraph, or "V-Mail,"
was developed by Kodak as a system for microfilming letters to conserve
shipping space during World War II.
1942 KODACOLOR
Film for prints, the world's first true color negative film, was announced.
1946 Kodak marketed KODAK EKTACHROME Transparency Sheet Film, the company's first color
film that photographers could process themselves using newly marketed chemical
kits.
1950 One unique form of publicity, was the
long-running series of KODAK COLORAMA
Display transparencies. Overlooking the main terminal floor of Grand Central
Station in New York City, the 18-foot-high by 60-foot-wide displays were viewed
by an estimated 650,000 commuters and tourists every business day until the
exhibit was closed as part of Grand Central’s restoration in 1989.
1954 KODAK TRI-X Film, a high-speed black-and-white film, was introduced. ♦ Kodak Brasileira began operating a sensitizing plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1955 Kodak began selling color films
without the cost of processing included, as the result of a consent decree
signed in 1954. The long-term result was the creation of a new market for
Kodak, providing products and services to independent photofinishers.
1957 The KODAK BROWNIE STARMATIC Cameras were introduced. These cameras
eventually included seven models, and more than 10 million were sold over the
next five years.
1962 The company's U.S. consolidated sales exceeded $1
billion for the first time and worldwide employment passed the 75,000 mark. ♦
John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, and Kodak
film recorded his reactions to traveling through space at 17,400 miles per
hour. ♦ Dr. Albert K. Chapman became chairman of the board of directors
following the death of Thomas J. Hargrave.
From 1963 to 1970 the INSTAMATIC series is introduced,
which more than 50 million were sold. the cameras featured easy-to-use
cartridge-loading film, which brought amateur photography to new heights of
popularity.
1965 Kodak developed the super 8 format and launched super
8 movies with new cartridge-loading KODACHROME
II Film.
1975 Kodak invented the world's first digital camera. The
prototype was the size of a toaster and captured black-and-white images at a
resolution of 10,000 pixels (.01 megapixels).
1980 Kodak celebrated its 100th anniversary. ♦ The company
announced its entry into the clinical diagnostic market with the KODAK EKTACHEM
400 Analyzer, utilizing dry-chemistry blood serum analysis.
1982 KODACOLOR VR 100 Film was introduced, using a new T-GRAIN Emulsion
Technology which represented a major break-through in silver-halide emulsions.
At the height of hid mastery of the photographic
market, Kodak monopolized about 90% of cameras, photographic film and paper
sales by the 70s in the United States. Still in the late 90s, and despite of
the competition from Fujifilm, Kodak reached the highest levels in sales and
earnings in its history.
In XXI Century, Kodak failed to adapt to changes in
the market and the explosion in the digital technologies development, that in
less than a decade became obsolete the use of photographic films and papers
that were an important percentage of the Kodak income. In the late XX century,
more than 30% of world production of silver was used in the preparation of photographic
materials, Kodak was still by far the largest consumer. Currently, less than
14% of silver is used in photography, but mainly in specialized applications as
medical plates (in which digital technology is also displace the silver films),
in art photography and film industry.
As we know, Kodak was one of the first companies to
start with the digital photography, launching the copy CD as we know it nowadays.
This supposed some complications on its analogic film production, so by 2004
Kodak announces its purpose of quitting its analogic APS system, so the can
focused on digital photography.
Finally on January 19, 2012, Eastman Kodak filed to US
law’s Chapter 11, declaring bankruptcy to obtain financing, in order to
reorganize and survive the pressures of the market. This event marks the end of
a story that began in 1889 when George Eastman founded the company, based on
popular use cameras marketing that had a remarkable innovation: the roll of
film.
In 2012-13, Kodak closed, sold or spun off parts of its consumer
imaging portfolio at that time. This included:
- The online photo site KODAK Gallery, which Kodak had acquired in 2001 as Ofoto, Inc.
- Direct manufacturing and sales of digital capture products, including cameras, video cameras and picture frames.
- Sales of consumer films, papers and kiosks, which were spun off and now operate independently under the name Kodak Alaris.
While today’s Kodak is mainly focused on business
solutions, the company continues to manufacture films and chemicals, and
participates in consumer markets through a variety of marketing and partnership
agreements.
Along the history of this transcendental company, it
is evident the constant innovation, improving at imaging, health, film and
photography production, and many other products. It is really important to know
that it has develop lots of products that have been evolving until the
facilities we can get nowadays. Kodak was a pioneer in digital photography and
improver of color technology, so now, you know its not all about Technicolor or
another color technologies.
REFERENCES:
Fotografía en color. (2016, October 01). Retrieved October 04, 2016,
from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotografía_en_color
- Kodacolor (filmmaking). (2016, April 13). Retrieved October 06, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodacolor_(filmmaking)
- List of color film systems. (2016, June 04). Retrieved October 04, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_color_film_systems
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