Fall of an Empire

Rob Galbraith DPI: Kodak ceases manufacturing of DCS Pro SLR/n, SLR/c
Kodak at one time was king of all that was photography. The lions market share that they dominated in the age of film would have never thought to have crumbled. But as the European Ilford came on to the scene in the 70's and Fuji later, along with horrible judgement of dropping very popular film lines, cracks in the exterior formed. I know I went the way of Fuji for colour and Ilford for Black and White films.

With the huge jump they had in the digital arena with their DCS series as early as the mid 90's, I would have thought they would again dominate this new medium. For a period of time, Kodak in fact did dominate, as they were the only manufacturer putting out professional grade 35mm digital cameras. But with $20 to $40k cameras, no one could afford them. 1999 became a pivitol year with Nikon introducing the D1. And at $5500, if was much more affordable than any of what Kodak was offering. Then Canon came out with the D30 and the 1D. The race was on, but Kodak had nothing to offer. Both Canon and Nikon came out with next generation cameras, only leaving Kodak further behind.

Finally, Kodak announced a 14 megapixel camera, much more affordable than the new Canon 1Ds by $3000. Lots of talk, lots of hype, but Kodak again failed with a camera with horrible performance and too many bugs and other issues. No one took Kodak too seriously at the point where they came out with the camera they are now discontinuing. Canon rocketed ahead, leaving Nikon behind as well.

With obvious management plunders over the last few decades, one has to wonder where do they go from here?