Kodak Falls Victim To Own Creation: Digital Photography

Unable To Adapt, Kodak Calls It Quits (For Now)

Eastman Kodak Co., one of the most recognizable name brands of the 20^th century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Thursday after months of speculation about the company’s ability to stay afloat amid falling sales in an increasingly digital world. A vanguard brand in the world of photography, Kodak became a household name with products such as Instamatic cameras and Kodachrome photographic film (forever immortalized in the song by Paul Simon). But this former trailblazer has lost its glory now that film cameras and printed photos are on their way to becoming relics of the past. Digital photography, which actually originated decades ago at Kodak, has now made the film maker nearly obsolete. Although Kodak did try to compete in the digital camera business, it never had as strong a presence as camera hardware specialist such as Nikon and Canon, or consumer electronics giants such as Sony. Interestingly, the advent of digital photography has now cannibalized the digital camera business as well, because smartphone cameras have become so good and so ubiquitous that many casual users have ditched their point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Based out of Rochester, New York, Kodak has been exposed to heavy foreign competition in its primary business of film sales and processing, and has had a dwindling customer base over the last 15 years or so. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the news was “difficult and disappointing,” and that the city of Rochester owed much to the 132-year-old company. With the help of an 18-month, $950-million credit facility from Citigroup, Kodak continue operating through the restructuring. Kodak’s CEO Antonio M. Perez said that filing for bankruptcy was “a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak.” In the last nine years, Kodak has closed13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, laying off 47,000 workers in the process.

Widespread film digitization, which of course has contributed to Kodak’s woes, may eventually be the key to future profitability. Last year, the company’s digital and printing technologies accounted for 75% of its revenue. Many analysts believe that film digitization wasn’t Kodak’s main problem. Instead, the trouble lay in the fact that Kodak didn’t listen its own innovators – the ones who invented digital photography – when they predicted that digitization would one day make the film business obsolete. Back then, the film industry was Kodak’s main moneymaker, and the company wasn’t prepared for widespread sea change. Just ten years ago, Kodak stock was trading at $20 or more. Last Thursday, it was down 35% from the day before – at 36 cents per share.

Book Shows Concept Art Behind Film’s Influential Aesthetic

Digital Scans Available Free Online, 30 Years After Book’s Publication

Based on Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, the seminal science fiction film “Blade Runner” forever changed the way we envision the future. Since its release in 1982, “Blade Runner” has helped define our goals and fears for a future society, and has lent a sense of concreteness to our conceptions of what the future may look like. In popular film, very few movies (1989’s Back to the Future Part II comes to mind) have made so lasting impression on our idea of what the future may hold in terms of technology and social constructs. Stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young were memorable in their portrayals of their characters, but it was the setting of a post-modern apocalyptic Los Angeles of 2019 that gave the film such staggering impact.

In the film, genetically engineered organic robots called replicants, which are sentient and look just like humans, serve various purposes on Earth’s off-world colonies but are banned on the planet itself. Replicants who ignore the ban are hunted and destroyed by “Blade Runners,” a team of special ops policemen. Expert Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is ready for retirement, but agrees to one final assignment in hunting down a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding out in Los Angeles.

The film’s visuals were created by a team of visionaries, including director Ridley Scott, designer Syd Mead, and effects specialist Douglas Trumbull. The influence of the aesthetic they created was so profound that many elements of the film’s visuals still pop up in movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, and more. This elaborate creation included cyberpunks, flying cars, and a crumbling urban backdrop that now has both retro and futuristic sensibilities. When the film was released, a limited edition Blade Runner Sketchbook was published to document the entire visual concept of the movie. This rare book can occasionally be found online, selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But now the entire book has been scanned to digital and published online, allowing the whole world to see how the aesthetic of “Blade Runner” was created 30 years ago. Best of all, the digital scans of the book can be accessed for free, courtesy of a leading digital publishing platform called Issuu.

Companies Fear SOPA Gives Government Power To Censor The Web

Bill Would Help Block Piracy, But At What Price?

The digital world has many benefits, and most of us couldn’t imagine life without its many treasures. Perhaps most significantly, the advent of the Internet has combined with the media digitization – from music to movies – to complete change the way we consumers get our hands on information and entertainment. But while music and film digitization has made it easier to consume content from sources like iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix, it has also opened up a new world of online piracy – a business of bootlegged content that hurts not just the film and record industries, but the entire economy.

And now, the  House of Representatives committee is preparing to debate a bill of great significance to many industries, including the movie business, the record industry, the television industry, content providers such as Netflix and cable/satellite providers, and internet services from Google to iTunes. The bill in question is called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Basically, the bill would empower the U.S. Attorney General to take action against websites (even those based outside of the United States) that host the illegal streaming and downloading of copyrighted intellectual property, such as music, movies, and TV shows. SOPA and a similar bill called Protect IP are being supported by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Netflix, and many other movers and shakers in these industries.

But critics of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which include well-known web companies such as Facebook, Google, Ebay, PayPal, AOL, and Wikipedia, say that the bill gives law enforcement authorities the power to censor the World Wide Web to a startling degree, without a trial or proof of wrong-doing – thus threatening free speech and the rights of due process. Microsoft and Verizon have recently expressed their own concerns about the bill, though criticism from such major businesses has not prevented the development of considerable bipartisan support in the legislature.

In an open letter to Congress, these high-profile SOPA critics said that the proposed legislation would have a “chilling effect on innovation,” and went as far as to compare the bill to censorship techniques used in China, Iran, and other totalitarian governments. The technology community fears that, under the bill, the government would have the power to shut down websites like Google and Yahoo!, and payment processors like PayPal, simply because they may serve or link to sites that are in violation of the terms of the law. The threat of censorship is not to be taken lightly, but the supporters of SOPA aren’t concerned that such a legislation would lead to a “big-brother” society. First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams summed up his feelings on the subject in a column in the Washington Post, saying, “Chinese dissidents do not yearn for freedom in order to download pirated movies.”

As music and film digitization continues to push physical media into obsolescence, enforcing legal downloading will be crucial to our economy. It is clear to everyone that some measures must be taken to inhibit piracy, but it remains unclear how best to do so. At press time, SOPA had just been modified so that it no longer includes a provision that would require internet service providers to block access to overseas Web sites that have been accused of (though not convicted of) piracy.

Oregon Library Offers Free Service To Help Patrons Digitize Photos

And Video

Salem Public Library’s Technology Learning Center Includes Equipment For Preserving Old Photos, Video, And Audio

Preserving your family’s priceless photos, videos, and audio is a terrific idea for a holiday gift. These precious moments can’t be bought at any department store, and they don’t have to cost much if you have some time to spare. There are a few ways to go about digitizing your memories. If you have lots of photos and a bit of money to spend on the project, you’ll get the best results using a fast and professional photo scanning service. But what if you just want to digitize a few photos, or few clips of video, or an old audio recording? If you have the tools and the know-how, you can do it yourself. And if you live in Salem, Oregon, you can get the job done even if you aren’t a computer whiz with a bunch of gadgets at your disposal. Just in time for the holidays, the Salem Public Library has revamped its Technology Learning Center with equipment to copy photos, slides, documents, records and audio and video tapes onto a DVD, CD, or thumb drive. You’ll have to pay for the blank discs or storage devices (or bring your own) but use of the equipment is free.

Reference librarian Janet Baker is one of the staffers available to help visitors use the equipment. She has step-by-step instructions for each machine, so that anyone can use them without difficulty. “A lot of people have photos at home that are lying in boxes,” she said. “It’s a great way to get library patrons involved so they can stay current with the fast-changing technology world.” The library’s adult and youth services manager Karen Fischer calls the Technology Learning Center “a great equalizer.” First and foremost, the library is a community center, said Fischer. “We try to reach out and provide what our community needs,” she said. Fischer pointed out that professional photo scanning services are a great options for those who can afford them, and who don’t have the time to scan each photo by hand. “But others can come here, learn about the technology, and gain new skills for a future job or hobby. We level the playing field.”

Today marks the 40th anniversary of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 mission, which landed a man on the moon for the first time.  Over the years the footage of Neil Armstrong putting his foot down on the lunar surface has been played over and over.  I personally have probably seen it at least 100 times.  That is why I was surprised and even shocked this weekend when I learned that the original footage of this historic moment no longer exists.  According to NASA the tape containing the footage of the mission was accidentally reused, recording something else over the historic footage and losing it forever.

This type of accidental re-recording is something we see at ScanDigital fairly regularly when processing our video to DVD orders.  The dance recital with 5 minutes of Michael Jordan in the NBA Playoffs or worse, the wedding footage with half the tape gone because someone’s husband hastily recorded the Superbowl over the second half of the reception video.  But I never expected a similar goof could have destroyed footage with such historical significance.

Luckily, not all footage has been lost.  On the day of the Apollo 11 landing, more than 600 million people around the world watched as the United States landed a man on the moon and listened to Neil Armstrong’s famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  Due to 1960s quality, the footage fed back to NASA lost about 30-40% of its quality during the process to distribute it out to the news and media.  Because the moment was so spectacular and mesmerizing, no one really knew what they were missing.  Today, the remaining footage is from news stations or from people at NASA who filmed the footage as it played on a television screen creating a copy, but the original, crisper version seems to have been lost forever.

It is truly unfortunate that the higher quality version is gone and this is another reminder of how vulnerable film and video is to loss.  Even though your own personal footage may not carry the same historic relevance as the moon landing, they’re important and need to be preserved for future generations.  As always, we encourage people avoid the same fate of those NASA tapes by digging out those old reels and videotapes and have them converted to digital.

Here is some of the existing footage:

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‘MommyGoggles’ from the MomDot review team wrote a wonderful review of ScanDigital after trying our service. She described her experience using our service to convert her video tapes of her daughter’s childhood to digital format in detail. Check out what she had to say:

Preserve your VHS memories with ScanDigital

I think we all have those old video tapes stored away in boxes that we are telling ourselves “I swear I am going to have that VHS put on a DVD”, yet time passes and we don’t get it done. Why? Maybe money is an issue. Time? Who knows why we take so long to get something preserved that is so precious to us, but today is a whole new day. 

I had a very special opportunity to work with ScanDigital to have a VHS tape that I have of my 14 year old daughter, in to a DVD that will last a whole lot longer than a VHS tape can last. I have had this tape of “K” and have added on footage of her ultrasound from when I was pregnant with her, the day she was born, and so many years of precious memories that were captured on VHS. My process with ScanDigital was so fast, so easy and I am truly amazed by their customer service and speedy work! 

Here was my process: 

• I registered for an account on www.scandigital.com on 2/8/09
• I went in and told them that I had a VHS tape to transfer, clicked through super fast and printed a shipping label. 
• My VHS tape was shipped on 2/10/09
• ScanDigital received shipment on 2/13/09
• Order was completed on 2/18/09
• I received my finished product on 2/23/09

I received emails all throughout the entire process letting me know they received my shipment, that my order was complete, as well as that my products was shipped. I LOVE being updated that way! I was beyond excited when my finished product arrived! Not only did they send me a nice, keepsake case with the finished DVD in it, but they also customized the cover with screen shots of each chapter that is included in my DVD.

How much was this? To have a VHS put on a DVD was just $19.95! They also do pictures on DVD and so much more. If you have home movies laying around, get them to ScanDigital! You will not regret it!

The quality of my DVD is amazing! Honestly, it is better than the VHS tape was!

Thank you to MomDot Reviews and ScanDigital for a truly heartwarming opportunity!

Some of you may be familiar with Twitter, in fact, some of you may be addicted to Twitter.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the service, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  For companies, it is a great way to exchange information with their customer bases and distribute updates or other interesting pieces of news.

Here is a short video which explains the service and how it works:

Following us is easy.  Simply set up an account at Twitter or log into an existing account.  You can find some of our key team members at:

Anderson Schoenrock, CEO & Co-Founder
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AndersonSD

Pamela Weiss, Director of PR / Marketing
Twitter: www.twitter.com/PamelaSD

So come follow us and we’ll follow you back.  We always love to hear from our customers!

One of my favorite parts of this job is interacting with our customers.  I have yet to have a conversation about ScanDigital where the other person does not start talking – animatedly – about “their” photos. Whether it’s a family vacation to Europe, a collection of images from a favorite relative, or the story of a professional photo shoot – it seems every person has a unique story about their images  We carry a connection to these images and there is nothing in the world like seeing those images in crisp digital format preserved forever.

Recently we processed an order for Eric Curry. Eric is a professional photographer that specializes in industrial shots.  His work is amazing and he shared one of his stories with me that I wanted to pass along to our readers.

More information on Eric and his work can be found at: http://americanprideandpassion.com/

Here is the story about his shot Dive, Dive, Dive (you can see a larger version with more detail by clicking on the image):

This image of a real mini submarine inside a factory is, “A True Story,” so to speak, as this little sub has been the primary business for her owner, Douglas Privitt, his partners and submersible pilots for the last 26 years.  In this photo, we are recreating, in a sort of whimsical fashion the scene from when the hull was first rolled at this same facility over 26 years ago.  I’m trying to imply a sort of Tom Sawyer / Huckleberry Finn feeling of “painting the fence,” mixed with a sort of Norman Rockwell flavor too.  I want people/ kids, to view this very large print on the wall of a museum some day and say to themselves, – Wow!  We should build a submarine too!

Motivation for me was not so much the really cool look of the mini sub placed against a backdrop of a rough factory environment, the welding torch or sparks from the grinder.   Rather it is the passion of the owner, Douglas, pictured in the open hatch (now in his late 70’s) who had the determination to pursue his vision, and by doing so is allowed to live out his dream of actually building a mini sub and using it as a business for all those years. They still do operate it to this day.   Writing the article for the image (not that anybody will read them,) I think helps others understand some of the motivations that compel some individuals.  The ingredients, that taken in total, make up a man’s life and help define him to a degree.  His passions, hopes, the fruits of his creativity, maybe also the pursuit of happiness that is one of the cornerstones of our great country.  With all the very bad things in the world these days, I like to offer something that is positive and real.

Maybe subtly, I would hope that people might intuitively understand that this photo is not just a pretty picture of a mini submarine, but speaks to a much broader issues of passion, determination, capitalism, free enterprise, the pursuit of happiness, and the skills needed to build such a wonderful jewel of engineering.  (Stay in school!)

Douglas started building submarines in the 1950s, coming from a career as a tool and die maker, he was also a winning motorcycle racer.  Over the course of several years now, he has built five different mini submersibles, Delta, pictured is the last in a line of highly successful diving rigs. In addition to the physical construction of the sub’s structure, Douglas constructed most of Delta’s original support systems on board, including the tracking and sonar systems, mechanical and hydraulic arm, along with the lights and camera housings.  Several of these separate systems (tracking and sonar specifically) have since been upgraded with high tech off the shelf electronics as developments in technology have allowed.  To date, the sub has performed 6,978 dives with a perfect safety record.

Interestingly, and so in keeping with the spirit of the picture, on the right side of the photo, is the foreman of this fabrication plant, Armando.  He is actually the nephew of the original foreman who rolled the hull all those years ago.  On the left hand side of the frame, grinding away is the primary pilot, Chris Ijames, the sub’s pilot for 18 years now.  Chris is also the guy who runs the day-to-day operations of their joint business, Delta Oceanographics, as they are partners.  Chris has logged about 2000 dives to date.

Notice the bucket of paint, and little Beatles Yellow Submarine included in the photo- just for fun.  All of the equipment on the foreground floor is from the sub itself.  We had to drag the sub and some of the loose equipment from Torrance where it lives in Doug’s machine shop, Marfab, via a flat bed truck to the city of Santa Fe Springs for the purpose of creating this image.  This photo took almost a year for all the different schedules to align so we could collectively work on making such a pretty picture.  It was truly a collaborative effort.  The company is Paramount Roll and Forming of Santa Fe Springs.  Paramount was so very generous to us by allowing the picture to take place.  In addition to granting access for the photo over the course of two days, they were very accommodating by cutting and welding several large pieces of scrap metal which were used in the photo as props.  All this effort in exchange for a finished print- wonderful!  From start to finish, the shot took over 16 hours of moving sub and equipment, propping, and then finally shooting that evening when it got dark enough to paint with light.  Over 700 frames were exposed that evening.  The following day- Sunday, we hauled it all back again.

This submarine Delta is a two-man vehicle; it has an operational depth of 1,200 feet.  A tested depth of 1,700 feet and a crush depth calculated to be about 3,000 feet.  With a cruising speed of 1.5 knots and a maximum speed of 3.5 knots, it can stay submerged in an emergency for 3 days straight.  There are nineteen view ports, and the sub’s total weight in air is 4,800 Lbs.  A typical sortie is usually between two to three hours and sometimes up to four hours duration, but there is enough chemical scrubbing agents to remove Co2, and battery power to operate the system for the whole 3 days if need be.  In an emergency, the entire propeller, propeller housing and rudder assembly, along with the rudder control linkage mechanism can be jettisoned, in order to free the sub from fouling of a net or other items that might get snagged on the structure.  They had to do just that once at a depth of about 300 feet while they were exploring a shipwreck, Lusitania.  Pretty scary stuff.  You can see the spare prop housing on the floor, that they used to go back down and retrieve the discarded hardware.

I once asked Chris what it was like to fly the ship underwater, expecting an enthusiastic response about the freedom and incredible sights that must open up to anyone lucky enough to go for a ride.  His reply only surprised me a little.  Explaining that it is often cold after you have been down a while as the hull is solid steel, a great conductor of cold temperatures from the outside waters, often, when diving, the visibility is restricted so you only see what is relatively close to the submersible, There have been more that one occasion when they finally settled on the bottom, only to find the visibility too restrictive to perform the mission for the day and have to scrub the dive.  His experience is that the ocean floor is littered with all sorts of debris that can be a real hazard for them; mostly old snagged fishing nets, and it is critical to keep an eye out for them.  Finally, it is a relatively restrictive environment inside the sub, definitely not a place for somebody with claustrophobia issues.  As pilot of the craft, and with the responsibility for the passenger, he maintains a professional and vigilant perspective at all times.  Chris did share that, through the past years, with all the different locations around the world they dive, some of the most striking scenery is found in the waters of Alaska and the Channel Islands just off the California coast.  Because of an abundance of marine life and unlimited visibility, it can sometimes be a magical experience, truly amazing.

They offered me a ride on the sub this summer if they get the contract to dive off the coast here locally.  There will be several days where they go out and back each day from Oxnard, and I’m welcome to come along, if everything works out, I can maybe go down for 4 hours or so.  We’ll see… Eric Curry

There are a few new things that we are happy to introduce this month to our customers. We are always in the process of developing new ways to improve our service on all ends to offer the best digitization services on the market.

Large Flatbed Scans – ScanDigital is now offering scans up to 12.2”x17.2” in either 300dpi or 600dpi. By adding this service ScanDigital will be able to offer high quality full scans of large photos, newspaper clippings, artwork, album pages and scrapbooks. By capturing the entire image in one scan the quality is far superior to having to “stitch” different images together in an editing program. The pricing at 300dpi and 600dpi is $1.88 and $2.88 respectively and is relatively inexpensive when considering that elsewhere the price is upwards of $6.00 a scan. For those of you who scrapbook this option is a great way to protect and share your cherished hard work.

Capzles Partnership – ScanDigital is proud to announce that we have partnered with Capzles.com, an innovative new photo and video sharing site that lets users design their own timelines. Capzles’ amazing new flash technology allows for users to fully customize their timelines and seamlessly integrate photos, videos and blog entries. Check them out at www.capzles.com.

ScanDigital Growth – Over the past year ScanDigital has added more than 15 new employees to our skilled and dedicated team. Our experienced and highly trained team has been integral in helping ScanDigital become the industry leader in both quality and turnaround time. Each new member brings with them ideas and experience that have helped us improve all aspects of our business. By adding our great team members we are able to meet the ever increasing demand for our services while maintaining the quickest turnaround time. Also, you can rest assured that all their materials are being handled with the upmost care by trained professionals who are dedicated to providing you with the best possible images.

If you were to start exploring the process of getting your images scanned into a digital format you would quickly see that most often the price to scan your photos is lower than the price to scan your slides and negatives. You are probably thinking, “Great! I will just send in my photos to be scanned and hold onto my negatives for safe-keeping.” Unfortunately for a small savings you would be keeping yourself from receiving the highest possible quality.

When scanning a print you are not working from the original material (negative) so essentially it is similar to making a copy of a copy. No matter how much we can do to adjust an image and while the results are often great, the results from scanning negatives or scanning slides almost always allows for a higher quality digital image. Because of how the slides and negatives are chemically processed it allows for a color quality that cannot be met on a standard photographic print.

Many consumers assume that because of the larger size of the prints they would create better digital images but with the high quality slide and negative scanners available that is just not the case. At ScanDigital we use Nikon scanners specifically designed for 35mm negative scanning and 35mm slide scanning. They are designed to scan at a very high dpi (we offer both 2000 dpi and 4000 dpi) with Digital Ice technology that automatically fixes very small scratches and any small dust particles that didn’t get completely removed during the slide and negative cleaning.

Slide scanning is a particularly important thing to do as the life of these slides is short-lived. Ektachrome slides for example can start deteriorating rapidly after just thirty years. Many customers express concern over shipping their irreplaceable slides across the country, believing that they are safer tucked away in the closet. Unfortunately by not preserving them digitally they are suffering irreparable damage as time goes on. ScanDigital is integrated with UPS for safe, secure and trackable shipping so don’t wait, save your precious memories by sending in your slides today!