Saturday Morning – One Last Kodak Moment

Unless you have been buried under a snowbank for the last three days, you have heard or read somewhere that Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.  Chapter 11 provides certain protections from creditors allowing a company to reorganzie itself and (hopefully) get back into a profitable situation.  This is going to be a very tough task for the former photography giant whose only valuable assets right now are some patents for imaging and related chemical processes.

This has to bring some nostalgia and disappointment to almost everybody because the monsterous company founded by George Eastman 131 years ago was a major part of our lifestyles for so many decades.  Eastman Kodak was primarily a photographic film and developing producer and truly led the world in both innovation and sales success.  Spotting an untapped market out there in ordinary households, the created and marketed a low-cost and easy to use box camera, the Brownie, that suddenly made family photos quick and inexpensive, not to mention the vacation memories that were now able to be saved in albums.

In the 1960's they upgraded the everyday camera with the introduction of the Insta-Matic, a much smaller camera that used pre-packaged film cartidges instead of requiring the tedious and risky threading of unexposed film onto spools in the back of the Brownie.  As the leading producer of 35 mm. film used by motion picture studios and the growing slide picture photo market, they were on top of the world raking in the dough and employing more than 145,000 people.  In their home base of Rochester, New York, where their plants covered block after block of space, they had 62,000 local residents employed there.

Their focus on growth was always in the film business, not in the cheapo cameras that were merely the delivery devices to keep people buying more film.  So when in 1973 Steve Sasson, one of their research engineers invented, built and showed them the world's first digital camera, the corporate offices treated it like the plague and told him to get it out of there because it would kill their film industry….their only reason for existance.  He did, and in 1978 Sasson and his supervisor Gareth Lloyd filed for and received United States Patent 4,131,919 for the device.  It was issued in their names and not in Kodak's.  That was the fatal Kodak moment that started them down the path to this week's bankruptcy.

Steve Sasson displays his original prototype
digital camera in this 2009 (digital) photo.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Completely ignoring the possibility that just maybe non-film photography could become dominant, Koday was left at the gate as the digital revolution swept by them.  Today only 6,000 Rochester residents work in the remnants of their factory complex.  They are still making some film and processing chemicals for some specialty uses, and focusing heavily on electronic imaging systems, but it's hard to catch up when the industry is changing so drastically from week to week.  George Eastman left a major legacy in the history of American industrialism, but it will soon be only a memory.  Too bad.

We had better turn our memories toward getting this equipment checked out now.  I'm going to start some more coffee thanks to another industy giant, Bunn-O-Matic.  See you back in the day room.

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From Amazon:

Some Great Markdowns This Weekend
on Digital Cameras

CLICK HERE to find one that is just right for you.

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Wednesday Morning – Get Your Camera

I don't know what it was that jogged my memory bank, but maybe it was the huge motel fire in Kissimmee the other day…. yes, I think that's what it was.  What popped up was the old bit of advice to carry a smoke detector with you  when you travel so that you can set it on a tabletop in your hotel or motel room at night.  The reason for doing that is obvious, so I don't need to get into the "why" of it, but I got to wondering if anybody does that anymore?

Over the years, updated building codes have been  mandating all hotels to install smoke detectors in their rooms and now we can be reasonably certain that anyplace we stay (in the U. S., anyway) will have one.  But being in the fire business, we know that we cannot always be certain that the darned things are going to be in working order while we are snoozing away.  Waaay back, I used to toss one into my luggage whenever I went on a trip, but since they've been showing up in every decent hotel now, I long ago discontinued the practice.  But just the same, I began thinking about it.  Do you, or does anybody you know still do this?

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There was a splash in the photography websites the other day when a press release announced the $50 million infusion of start-up money for a new type of digital camera technology called Lytro.  This innovative lens and sensor capture all the light in the image and then permit you to focus the photo later when you bring it up on your computer.  In other words, you don't need to focus your camera before the shutter fires to capture the image.  It grabs what they call the "light fields" and saves it all for processing later.

TODAYdigital prepared this video report that gives an introductory explanation:

The online articles about this new technology have some fascinating examples posted where you (the reader) can click your cursor on any part of the image and it comes into focus while leaving the the other areas that are out of the focal range in a slightly blurry presentation.

Lytro has posted a picture gallery where you can play with the new technology on your computer now.  Just CLICK HERE and have fun.

Now let's have fun getting this equipment checked out.  I'm going to have even more fun and make some more coffee.  See you back in the day room in a little while.

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"This is not a circus!"

THE OFFICIAL FIRE DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPHER for the Uxbridge Fire/EMS Department in Massachusetts was physically assaulted Thursday morning while at a fire.  James Ahern was documenting a barn fire that Uxbridge and two other FD's were working shortly after 11 am when an unidentified man came charging after him, yelling and demanding that he get off the property.  Ahern had official ID and told the man who he was, but the angry observer just kept on with his tantrum demanding that Ahern give him the film from his camera.

Ahern refused and started to walk away toward the street when the man tackled him and tried to start beating on him.  Two firefighters nearby grabbed the enraged man and held him until a policeman got there and subdued the assailant.

Telegram & Gazette photo

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that after detaining him in a cruiser for a while, the man was allowed to leave and he drove away.  The police chief said that they will probably arrest him later.  Read the full report in the T & G HERE.

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Today’s Bargain …. Not To Be Missed

Marked down for clearance, the Canon PowerShot A490:

This camera normally sells for $99, but a newer model has just been introduced and this one has been marked down by 30% and is being sold this weekend for $69.00!    It has a 3x optical zoom and a whopping 10 megapixel resolution!

(arrow not included)

This is a true “pocket camera” that really fits into your shirt pocket – 2.4″ x 3.7″.

It has a built-in flash and operates with just two AA batteries.

It’s also a great starter camera for a child.

To learn more about this camera and order one if you like it, CLICK HERE

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THE END CAME TO A PHOTOGRAPHIC ERA THURSDAY as the last photo lab to process Kodachrome film developed the final roll.

AP

When Kodak announced last year that they would be discontinuing the famous film line,  Firegeezer reported HERE on June 22, 2009:

It was the world’s first commercially successful color film.  But since color film is largely made now with entirely different ingredients, it became uneconomical to continue with the Kodachrome which currently was being made only once a year.  It has largely been replaced by their Ektachrome brand. 

Because of the complexity, only Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons, Kan., still processes Kodachrome film. The lab has agreed to continue through 2010, Kodak said.  Hellyar estimates the retail supply of Kodachrome will run out in the fall, though it could be sooner if devotees stockpile. In the U.S., Kodachrome film is available only through photo specialty dealers.

At the time, Kodachrome amounted to less than 1% of Kodak’s film sales.  After the announcement Dwayne’s owner, Dwaybe Steinle and his son Grant asked Kodak to mix up enough developer chemicals to last them to the end of 2010, which they did.  During the past year the shop has been flooded with rolls for processing, some of them that had been hoarded in freezers for years.  The New York Times reported:

In the last weeks, dozens of visitors and thousands of overnight packages have raced here, transforming this small prairie-bound city not far from the Oklahoma border for a brief time into a center of nostalgia for the days when photographs appeared not in the sterile frame of a computer screen or in a pack of flimsy prints from the local drugstore but in the warm glow of a projector pulling an image from a carousel of vivid slides.

AP / Duprey

In the span of minutes this week, two such visitors arrived. The first was a railroad worker who had driven from Arkansas to pick up 1,580 rolls of film that he had just paid $15,798 to develop. The second was an artist who had driven directly here after flying from London to Wichita, Kan., on her first trip to the United States to turn in three rolls of film and shoot five more before the processing deadline.

During the past week Dwayne’s employees kept the last Kodachrome processing machine operating 24 hours a day filling orders as the announced deadline for accepting orders of December 30 approached.  On Thursday Dwayne’s received 18 bags of U. S. mail and 500 packages via FedEx, enough work to keep them processing around the clock until sometime next week.

Finally all the deliveries had arrived and Dwayne pulled out a camera loaded with the last roll that will be developed, gathered the 60 employees of the lab out front and snapped the Final Photo with all of them wearing a custom-made T-shirt to mark the occasion.

The last Kodachrome processing machine?  It’s going to be sold for scrap.

Dwayne’s Photo Lab WEBSITE HERE.
You can order the T-shirts online thru the website!

CBS News prepared this fine report on the end of the Kodachrome era
including a visit to Dwayne’s

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Color photography was first introduced to the public in 1932 when German filmmaker Agfa brought AgfaColor to the market.  The first American color film was made by Kodak and called Kodachrome, based on three color emulsions.  It became commercially available in 1935 and about three years later the 35 mm. motion picture color films started showing up in movie theaters.

But experimentation with color processes that would give true colors as well as being capable of profitable mass-production began long before that.  Kodak has just released a video clip of some of their early trials and what makes this especially interesting is the date that they were doing this, 1922.  They had remarkable processing already available more than ten years before they were able to make it commercially.

Enjoy this Kodak Moment from 1922:

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WHEN JOHN AND KATHARINE MYERS, AND THEIR  two young children, traveled from New Jersey to Madison, Wisconsin, last week they had no inkling of what was about to happen to them.  The purpose of their visit to the state capital was to witness the wedding of friends of their’s that was scheduled to take place in the capital building on Saturday.

Following the ceremony, the family stopped out front of the capital to take a family photo.  After getting the antsy kids lined up with Mom, John set the camera on a railing and set the self-timer on the shutter before dashing back to join the others in the shot:

As they were about to leave for the reception, John realized that his camera bag wasn’t where he left it and went back into the building to see if anybody had seen it.  Alas, nobody could tell him where it was, so he went back outside and then had a thought….maybe his camera caught whoever picked up his bag.  The Madison State Journal picks up the story:

 “I thought that maybe I caught the person in my shot, and when I checked, there he was.”The photo clearly shows in the background, behind the Myers family, a man dressed in hard-soled dark brown shoes, white socks, cut-off dark blue denim shorts and dark T-shirt and ball cap, going through the bag on the ground at the building entrance.

“I fully expected the Capitol Police to tell me this happens all the time and there was nothing they could do, but as soon as they saw the picture they sent two officers out running and gave out a description,” Myers said.  It turns out the man in the photograph resembled a man who frequented the Capitol grounds.

“They were amazing,” Myers said. “They located the guy. He was still carrying the bag.”

When he was stopped by police, near the Capitol at West Washington Avenue, not only did the man have the bag with him, but it contained Myers’ wallet, cash, credit cards and other items.

“I caught the picture, but I was even more amazed they managed to find the person since all they had to go on was his clothing — his face wasn’t in the picture,” Myers told reporters.

The State Journal points out that it was a good thing Myers’ shutter was working because it was discovered during the investigation that the capital’s security camera that was focused on that entrance wasn’t working.

Read the full story HERE.

I want to use this morning’s time to publicly thank our good friend Mike Legeros for all that he has done for us since the inception of this blog/website.  During the past three years he has been our unofficial-official photographer at the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore and has done not just a terrific job, but also more than we would ever dare ask for.  And always with a smile on his face while he is around and, as he snaps the shutter, documenting our stay in the Exhibit Hall.

Mike  is a professional photographer, among other fun jobs, and is the official historian for the Raleigh, North Carolina, Fire Department.  He also publishes the Raleigh/Wake Firefighting Blog that we link to frequently here.  It’s a great bit of fun to read it plus it’s packed with information not only about the central North Carolina FD and EMS happenings, but historical information as well.  The widely-traveled Man of a Thousand Hawaiian Shirts not only seeks out the best barbecue huts in whatever state he’s in (I’m not talking about the State of Confusion), but he is constantly documenting extant former firehouses in whatever major city he passes through.  I really do recommend that you click on the link above to his website and add it to your Favorites list.  It’s a “fun” trip through cyberspace.

At this year’s Expo I got to “turn the tables,” so to speak and take a photo of Mike.  He had stopped by the popular Fire/EMS Bookstore that is always set up in the Exhibit Hall and found that an EMS training manual that used one of his photos for the front cover art was just published.  So the publisher who had a rep. there gave him a freebie and I was able to show both of them to you today.

So once again, let me shout out a big “Thanks, Mike” for all that you have done for Dave, Mike and I.

Now before we check out that website, let’s get this equipment checked out first.  I’m going to get some more coffee started.

A VACANT HOUSE IN PROSPECT HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, was the scene of a suspicious fire early this morning.  The fire itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but Chicagoland’s ace fire photographer Larry Shapiro was on the scene and it’s always worth taking a few minutes of your time to view his unique photos of any incident.  His “firefighters at work” shots are always tops.

He has posted an 87-image gallery from this incident HERE.

dresden

The photo was taken on the roof of the building “Haus der Presse” and starts at the left side with the Ostragehege. You can see the Congress Center and the Maritim Hotel rightwards. In the center is the city of Dresden with the famous Semperoper (back view), the castle and the Church of Our Lady. In the background is the television tower and you can identify outlines of the Saxon Switzerland. In the right part you can see the south of Dresden.

The picture was made with the Canon 5D mark II and a 400mm-lens. It consists of 1.665 full format pictures with 21.4 megapixel, which was recorded by a photo-robot in 172 minutes. The converting of 102 GB raw data by a computer with a main memory cache of 48 GB and 16 processors took 94 hours. With a resolution of 297.500 x 87.500 pixel (26 gigapixel) the picture is the largest in the world. (stand December 2009)

Link to website where you can manipulate the full picture HERE

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward