For decades, Kodak’s name was synonymous with film. Now, as the company struggles in bankruptcy during a costly patent fight versus Apple, it is selling the very thing that once made its reputation.

Cast your mind back twenty-odd years ago to when the first consumer-grade digital cameras started coming out. Did anyone look at those grainy, costly things and think, “Hey, this is gonna replace film one day!”? (Well, maybe some people predicted it in the same optimistic sense as they’ve long predicted microfilm and book spools will replace printed books, but seriously?) Certainly Polaroid and Kodak didn’t seem to take it seriously—to their eventual chagrin.

As I wrote for TeleRead a while ago, it used to be that you could find even relatively obscure sizes of film at your local corner store. I was able to take and have developed photos using a then-30-year-old Brownie Hawkeye box camera, and never had any trouble finding film for it.

But after twenty years of development, all the obscure types of film went by the wayside, and even the more common ones have become harder to find. There was still a photo developing counter at the K-Mart where I worked 15 years ago when I worked there, but a few years ago they ripped it out for more space.

Complete article here.

Credit: www.the-digital-reader.com