Sadly, we are saying goodbye to the company that helped us to record and preserve the memories of our lives in film. Yes, it is hard to say, but the 131 year old Kodak has decided to stop producing cameras in order to focus on printers and retail photo printing. The decline of this famous American business began in the 1990s as the sales of Kodak photographic film started to decrease because of the digital revolution. The company filed for bankruptcy last month and this decision was made in order to save money. Founded by George Eastman in 1880, the company is headquartered in Rochester, New York. The last year for Kodak to report a profit was in the year 2007.

Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film During most of the 20th century, and in 1976 had a 90% market share of photographic film sales in the United States. Kodak's ubiquity was such that its tagline Kodak Moment entered common lexicon as a personal event that demanded to be recorded for posterity. Kodak never fully made the adjustment to the advent of digital photography. The company will still be engaged in the photography business but it won't be the same ever again. For a lot of us, Kodak was the standard for our film, our photo chemicals and our photo paper. We knew and trusted their products for a lot of years. I wish I had a dime for every roll of Kodak film I bought.

So long, old friend.

Popular Kodak Films

Kodachrome – Color slide film using unique proprietary technology. Ektachrome – Color slide film suitable for normal E-6 processing. Ektar – Semi-professional color negative film. Portra – Professional color negative film designed for portraiture. Ultra Color – Color negative film in 100 and 400 ASA. Elite Colour – Color negative film in 35mm format. T-MAX – Professional B&W negative film. Tri-X – Older, relatively fast (320-400 ASA) B&W negative film. Plus-X – B&W slow (125 ASA) negative film with finer grain. HIE – A professional, infrared-sensitive B&W film. Technical Pan – A very slow, very fine grain professional B&W film. BW400CN – B&W negative film for the C-41 process. E100G, E100GX, E100VS, and E200 – Professional color slide films. Kodak Gold and Kodak Gold MAX/Ultra – Consumer color negative film.