A Camera Without Film 1975–1976

You are advising senior managers at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York.

A young Kodak engineer, Steven Sasson, has built a working prototype of a camera that records pictures electronically instead of on film. Kodak dominates the photographic film business, which is extremely profitable.

Known information

The prototype weighs about 3.6 kg (8 lb) and takes 23 seconds to store one black-and-white image of 100 × 100 pixels on cassette tape.
Viewing a picture requires a separate playback unit connected to a television set.
Electronic image sensors are improving, but a consumer product could be many years away.
Most of Kodak’s profits come from film, processing chemicals and photographic paper.

Reveal what happened (spoilers: decide first)

Fact

What actually happened

Kodak patented the invention but did not commercialise it, keeping film as its core business. (Protect the film business)

Kodak received a US patent for the digital camera in 1978 but did not bring the prototype to market, and Sasson was not allowed to show it publicly. Kodak did continue digital imaging research and later sold digital cameras, but film remained its main business for decades. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2012.

Important

Possible consequences · Analysis and speculation, not fact

An early all-in move on digital might have positioned Kodak strongly for the digital age, or it might have cut into film profits for many years before any digital product could make money. Analysts disagree about whether any incumbent could have managed that transition smoothly.

History does not reveal what would definitely have happened under the other choice. Many factors could have changed the outcome.

Context · Why it was decided this way

The popular story that Kodak simply “buried” digital photography is an oversimplification. Kodak scientists developed early megapixel image sensors in the 1980s, and the company was for a time one of the leading sellers of digital cameras in the United States.

Business historians generally argue that Kodak’s difficulty was less about inventing the technology than about changing a business model built on selling film, paper and processing, which digital photography made unnecessary.