12 and 12 researched events on one shared scale. Kodak 1880–present, Konica 1873–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling lithographic and photographic tools and materials at Konishiya Rokubeiten in Kojimachi, Tokyo, then established his own Konishi Honten business in Nihonbashi. By 1882 the firm was making lightproof photographic boxes, an early move from importing and retailing into domestic production.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Company Overview
George Eastman began commercial dry-plate manufacture in Rochester in 1880 and formed the Eastman Dry Plate Company with Henry Strong on 1 January 1881. The partnership became the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884, the Eastman Company in 1889, and Eastman Kodak Company of New York in 1892.
The company expanded practical manufacturing around photography and lithography, building the skills needed to supply a young Japanese photographic culture. That foundation led to the 1903 Sakura Hakkin photographic paper and Cherry Hand Camera, products that joined the light-sensitive material and the picture-making instrument under one house.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Replica of Cherry Portable Camera
The factory-loaded Kodak camera went on sale in 1888 with film for one hundred circular exposures and a return-to-Rochester processing, printing, and reloading service. The transparent roll film marketed in 1889 and the one-dollar Brownie introduced in 1900 extended Kodak's consumer system.
Kodak opened its first manufacturing plant outside the United States at Harrow, England, in 1891. In Rochester it renamed the former Blair Camera factory Hawk-Eye Works in 1911 and established optical design there in 1912; Kodak's own 1942 lens manual states that the company began making simple-type lenses in 1912 and soon followed with Kodak Anastigmats.
Kodak expanded through Brownie boxes, Folding Pocket and Vest Pocket cameras, Autographic models, Panoram swing-lens cameras, professional and Premo equipment, and many film-number families. Model number, picture size, film number, body construction, lens, and shutter package changed independently and must not be collapsed into one generic Kodak chronology.
History of KODAK Cameras, customer service pamphlet AA-13 · Kodak and Premo Camera Chronology
The Cherry Hand Camera appeared in 1903 as a branded, mass-produced Japanese camera for amateur use, while Sakura paper anchored the materials side. Konishi Honten broadened the camera range during the following decades, founded a professional photography school in 1923, and introduced Sakura Film for general photography in 1929.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Replica of Cherry Portable Camera
The 16mm Cine-Kodak camera, projector, and film system appeared in 1923, and Kodak introduced an 8mm amateur motion-picture system in 1932. These systems extended the company's integrated camera-film-processing-projector model beyond still photography.
Milestones · History of KODAK Cameras, customer service pamphlet AA-13 · Kodak and Premo Camera Chronology
The Konishi Professional School of Photography linked the company to photographic education, while Sakura Film brought in-house sensitized-material production to general photographers. The business reorganized as a joint-stock company in 1936 and announced Sakura Natural Color Film in 1940, the first Japanese-made color film in the company's chronology.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera
Kodak bought the Nagel Camera Company in Stuttgart in 1931. Kodak A.G. introduced the Retina in 1934 and developed folding rangefinders, rigid Retinas, Retinettes, Retina Reflex cameras, and later other German-made equipment. Retina C-series cameras used convertible front components matched to a fixed rear cell, whereas the rigid Retina IIIS used fully interchangeable lenses; these systems are not mutually equivalent.
Milestones · Kodak and Premo Camera Chronology · The Retina Guide
Rochester precision cameras included the Bantam Special, Super Kodak Six-20, Kodak 35 and 35 Rangefinder, Ektra, Medalist and Medalist II, and Signet 35. They span 828, 620, and 135 formats; fixed, unit-focusing, and interchangeable optics; leaf and focal-plane shutters; and different meter or rangefinder arrangements.
Milestones · History of KODAK Cameras, customer service pamphlet AA-13 · Kodak and Premo Camera Chronology · Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses, fourth edition
As Konishiroku became an incorporated photographic manufacturer, its prewar Pearl folding cameras shared the range with sensitized materials and optical work. During the war the company developed and produced military aerial cameras. Civilian production resumed afterward, and the Konica I brought the Konica name to a 35mm camera by 1948.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konishiroku Konica I Cs
Kodak documented inner air-glass surface treatment in 1940 and later marketed magnesium-fluoride-coated optics as Lumenized, commonly marked with a circled L. Its 1946 data book renamed Kodak Anastigmat Special as Anastar and Kodak Anastigmat as Anaston while explicitly stating that the renaming did not change the optical formulas. The 1952 data book distinguished Ektar, Anastar, Anaston, Kodar, Kodet, enlarging, projection, and camera-specific families.
Kodak Lens Manual · Kodak Lenses, Range Finders and Shutters · Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses, fourth edition
The fixed-lens Konica I established a durable camera brand within Konishiroku, alongside Pearl folding cameras and other popular formats. Hexar and Hexanon names became closely associated with the firm's lenses. In 1960 the ambitious Konica F carried the company into interchangeable-lens 35mm SLRs with a fast metal focal-plane shutter.
Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Optical Products · Konishiroku Konica I Cs · Konica F, record 103310371208
The Konica F introduced a large lens interface and a vertically travelling metal shutter capable of one two-thousandth of a second, but it was expensive and short-lived. Konishiroku kept developing the idea through later reflex cameras, reaching the Auto-Reflex and then the Autoreflex T, whose open-aperture TTL metering worked with automatic Hexanon lenses.
Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konica Autoreflex T Instruction Manual · Konica F, record 103310371208
Kodak introduced the 126 Instamatic system in 1963 and the 110 Pocket Instamatic system in 1972. The film cartridges, body sizes, exposure systems, flash arrangements, and production branches differ, so the Instamatic name cannot stand in for one format or one body platform.
Milestones · History of KODAK Cameras, customer service pamphlet AA-13
The Auto-Reflex combined a focal-plane shutter, interchangeable lenses and shutter-priority automatic exposure, and could switch between full and half frame. The Autoreflex T moved metering through the lens. Successive AR-mount bodies and Hexanon lenses carried that practical automation into the 1980s before Konica's SLR line wound down.
Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konica Autoreflex T Instruction Manual
The C35EF put a pop-up electronic flash into a compact 35mm camera, with Japanese museum records dating its release to December 1974 and the corporate chronology presenting it as a 1975 milestone. In November 1977 the C35AF added passive triangulation autofocus, turning two frequent causes of failed snapshots into camera-managed tasks.
History: 1960-1979 Innovative World Firsts / Rapid Growth of Copier Business · Konica C35AF, record 103310371356 · Konica C35EF, record 103310371333
Kodak engineer Steven Sasson built a completely digital camera prototype in 1975. Kodak subsequently developed professional DCS, consumer digital, sensor, printer, and workflow products while chemical film and camera lines contracted. The digital invention belongs to Kodak's technical history but does not make every later Kodak-branded digital camera a Rochester-manufactured product.
Milestones · Photographic Processes Video Series & Glossary - Digital Photography
Konica translated camera-lens experience into ultra-precise aspheric plastic optics for compact-disc pickups while continuing photographic work. The Hexar and HEXAR RF kept high-grade 35mm cameras in view, digital Revio models addressed the new market, and camera OEM production grew even as optical components became strategically important.
History: 1980-2002 Digital Age Impact and New Business Challenges · Annual Report 2001 · Optical Products
Konishiroku Photo Industry changed its name to Konica Corporation in 1987 and brought the company's products under the Konica brand. Cameras and films remained visible, but copiers, medical imaging, digital systems and optical components grew in weight. A business-technology partnership with Minolta prepared the ground for their 2003 integration.
History: 1980-2002 Digital Age Impact and New Business Challenges · Annual Report 2001 · History: 2003 onward — Konica and Minolta Integration
Konica and Minolta integrated management in 2003. Konica Minolta withdrew from cameras in March 2006, transferred part of the digital-SLR assets to Sony, ended film and paper production on a staged schedule, and completed photo-sales withdrawal in 2007. The current successor remains an imaging and optics company, but not an own-brand camera maker.
History: 2003 onward — Konica and Minolta Integration · Konica Minolta, Withdrawal Plan for Camera Business and Photo Business · Optical Products · Company Overview
Eastman Kodak entered Chapter 11 in 2012 and emerged as a reorganized company on 3 September 2013. The restructuring transferred Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging to the Kodak Pension Plan of the U.K. subsidiary; those businesses subsequently formed a separate Kodak Alaris continuity rather than an uninterrupted Eastman Kodak operating division.
Kodak Emerges as Technology Company Focused on Imaging for Business · Eastman Kodak Company Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025
The current New Jersey Eastman Kodak Company remains headquartered at 343 State Street in Rochester. Its 2025 Form 10-K identifies Print, Advanced Materials and Chemicals, and Brand segments; the company manufactures professional and consumer still film and motion-picture film, while its Brand segment licenses the Kodak name for third-party digital, instant-print, and 35mm cameras and other consumer products.
Eastman Kodak Company Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 · Brand Licensing
