Today we turn back the clocks to the year 1982. Ronald Reagan was President, John Paul II was Pope and the Falklands War began and ended. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial premiered in theaters, we lose John Belushi to a drug overdose, and John DeLorean is arrested for selling cocaine to undercover FBI agents. Also that same year, the Commodore 64 is introduced, the first CD is produced in Germany and Kodak begins selling the Disc Camera.
“No other camera looks or works like it.” claimed Kodak. In response to their successful 110 Instamatic cameras which were introduced 10 years earlier, the Disc camera had at the time, cutting edge technology. The disc contained 15 frames around a cassette that you simply placed into the camera. The camera would take a photo, and then rotate the disk for the next shot. The cameras were small and thin with Auto exposure and Auto flash. Only color film was available, Slide and Black and White film were never produced. The Disc camera sparked the biggest ad campaign in the company’s history. Kodak would go on to sell 25 million of these cameras.
The problem was that these little cameras just did not produce quality pictures. Because of the small negatives, the images had to be greatly enlarged which in effect showed lots of grain and poor image quality. Photo Labs were also using optics designed for larger formats rather than use Kodak’s specially-designed system. Disc cameras were relatively expensive compared to other formats and with the increasing popularity of the new 35mm format, which produced far superior images, Kodak ended production of the Disc by 1988. They continued production of the film until 1999.
We close the books on the Disc camera and bid it a fond farewell. We also close the books on the year 1982 but before we go, I’d like to add just one more memory from that year. Sadly, in December of that year, ABBA disbanded and played together for the very last time.
Have a great day.
Photography Zen 