End of an era: Kodak shutters camera business

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Picture it: Save for a few disposable point-and-shoots, Kodak is exiting the camera business.

Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday that it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in a move that marks the end of an era for the beleaguered 132-year-old company.

Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak was known all over the world for iconic cameras such as the Brownie and the Instamatic. For the last few decades, however, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company has struggled. It was battered by Japanese competition in the 1980s, and failed to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology.

The company sought bankruptcy protection from creditors last month in a case that covers $6.7 billion in debt. It has a year to devise a restructuring plan. Citigroup Inc. was approved to lend the company $650 million to continue operating.

Exiting the digital camera business is especially poignant for Kodak. In 1975, using an electronic sensor invented six years earlier at Bell Labs, a Kodak engineer named Steven Sasson created the world's first digital camera. It was an eight-pound, toaster-size device that captured low-resolution black-and-white images.

Reached at home on Thursday, Sasson told The Associated Press that seeing Kodak exit the business is "a bit sad" but part of a transition facing all companies that use evolving technology.

"The average person probably owns more digital cameras than they realize," he said. "It's just the reality that digital imaging is a part of our lives and you can capture images in a lot of different ways. There's a lot of choices people have, cellphones being one of them."

Through the 1990s, Kodak spent some $4 billion developing the photo technology inside most of today's cellphones and digital devices. But fearing that it might cannibalize its celluloid film business, Kodak waited until 2001 to bring its own digital cameras to the consumer market. By then, it faced strong competitors like Sony Corp. and Canon.

These days, digital camera sales are suffering as consumers increasingly take photos on smartphones such as the iPhone.