Kodak Legacy

George Eastman bought a camera in 1877 and paid someone to teach him how to use it. Then he found an easier way. First he replaced the wet-plate process, in which photographers had to cart chemicals around, with a dry-plate system, so they could just take along Eastman’s precoated glass. Then he replaced the glass plates with paper film, leading to the simpler camera called the Kodak.

The Kodak was relatively expensive, so Frank Brownell of Kodak gave the world the Brownie camera, a boxful of visual memories for only $1. The name was taken from a storybook character to appeal to children.

Kodachrome, the first film to effectively render color, was an instant hit and had its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s. Kodachrome was favored by still and movie photographers for its rich but realistic tones, vibrant colors and durability. Unlike other color film, Kodachrome was purely black and white when exposed. The three primary colors that mixed to form the spectrum were added in three development steps rather than being built into its layers.

”Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day,” Paul Simon sang in his 1973 hit ”Kodachrome,” which included the plea ”Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

Steven J. Sasson, an electrical engineer who invented the first digital camera at Eastman Kodak in the 1970s, remembers well management’s dismay at his feat. “My prototype was big as a toaster, but the technical people loved it,” Mr. Sasson said. “But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘that’s cute — but don’t tell anyone about it.'”

The company introduces what it says is the first digital camera able to send high-resolution images without connecting to a computer. The EasyShare-One camera allowed users to share pictures online or by e-mail.

The company says it will sell its X-ray film and medical imaging equipment operations to an investment company, Onex of Toronto, for $2.35 billion in cash. Unlike Kodak’s consumer film business, which rapidly collapsed as many photographers switched to digital cameras, X-ray film sales declined more slowly and the unit remained profitable.

The last processor in the world of Kodachrome, the first successful color film and still the most beloved, is shut down in Parsons, Kan., to be sold for scrap. Kodachrome rewarded generations of skilled users with a richness of color and a unique treatment of light that many photographers described as incomparable even as they shifted to digital cameras.