@nyunfilter: This is an educational video about the rise and fall of Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York. In 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson built the first portable digital camera. It weighed eight pounds, ran on sixteen batteries, and took twenty-three seconds to capture a grainy black-and-white image on a cassette tape. When Sasson demonstrated it to executives, they didn't ask how it worked. They asked why anyone would want to look at a picture on a television screen instead of holding a print. Kodak patented the technology in 1978 but did not put it into production. The company feared digital would destroy its highly profitable film business. The camera was also primitive. It produced 0.01 megapixels. The industry standard for black and white was one million pixels. Personal computers barely existed. The market for digital photography did not yet exist. While Kodak hesitated, Sony, Canon, and Nikon invested in digital. Kodak eventually released digital cameras, but it was too late. Film sales collapsed. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. At its peak, Kodak employed over 140,000 people worldwide. By bankruptcy, it had about 17,000. In Rochester, employment dropped from 60,000 to fewer than 7,000. Steve Sasson stayed at Kodak for thirty-five years. He helped develop the first DSLR in 1989. He received the National Medal of Technology from President Obama. This is a factual historical presentation. 📍 Rochester, New York #Kodak #RochesterNY #DigitalCamera #BusinessHistory #HiddenHistory

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Sunday 18 October 2026 06:16:59 GMT