Photography

Kodak stopped marketing film cameras in the developed countries since the advent of the digital cameras. The film-based cameras are now being developed and marketed for countries like China and India that still has great market potential for this segment. With many people in these countries unable to spend much on digital cameras, the traditional camera still holds value to the consumers. Digital cameras in these countries are labeled as luxury items and only a few high tech savvy people with high disposable income own one.

In light of these facts Kodak sees a potential market for its traditional film cameras in these countries. But with growing economic progress and increasing wealth among the people this may be short lived. It may take a few years before the film cameras are declared outdated and redundant in these countries too. The emergence and growth of IT companies and rising awareness to new trends the consumers will very soon shift to higher-end technological products. Shift to digital printing systems

Companies like Sony, Hewlett Packard have entered the photo industry and revolutionized the market dynamics with digital cameras and printers. Kodak had to undergo rapid transformation from providing consumer based photo products to digital printing and medical imaging systems that required a shift to business to business marketing strategy. This move was strategic for survival in a growing market sphere with changing needs and consumer expectations. The move to digital printing and medical imaging system redefined the marketing moves of the company.

Kodak can now face the challenges in terms of technology and market forces that the industry poses. The major risk associated with this strategic decision is the competitive edge that the other companies present to Kodak. Hewlett Packard is well equipped with latest technological upgrades as compared to Kodak. The company cannot afford to go slow or sluggish in its approach to new technology and innovation. It may be left far behind in this race for superior technology products.

Introduction

The Computers have revolutionized the practical technologies in our daily lives. T.V, microwaves, phones, air-conditioning and almost every other technology uses computer technology in some form or another. Similarly, it has influenced the art, creating a new line of digital artists. Animation; the visual story-telling art, was born when the art met the technology. Animated filmmaking and visual storytelling are grown into multi-billion dollar entertainment need.

The leading animation firm Pixar’s intern experiences page states:”One day, we had lunch with Ed Catmull, the President and Co-Founder of Pixar. He told us that we are and always will be a storytelling company. Our job is to make timeless stories that inspire people, make them cry and make them laugh. We are not here to just make a quick buck… [Pixar] is much more than just a cool place to work. It is a place where you can live out your childhood dreams of storytelling and filmmaking, and know that your hard work is inspiring people of all ages, all over the world.”According to Dave Kehr- “Animation, the art of making inanimate objects appear to move. Animation is an artistic impulse that long predates the movies”.

Animation has existed for over one hundred years and is not limited just by computer animation. The computer acts as a tool for artists to develop creative ideas. Paintings, drawings, sketches and initial 2D Photoshop computer graphics are the styles which lead to 3D animation. In Adobe Photoshop, scanned sketches are manipulated by adding or removing layers, blending until the desired artistic look is acquired. Initially, storyboards and low-resolution 3D characters are created to eliminate the possible problems and to enhance the design in the process.

Once the story is finalized with scene details, characters and sets, the 3D work of the animated project can begin. Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3Ds Max, Avid Softimage XSI and Houdini are some of the software that artists use to refine the work. At the end of the animation process, the final sets of images are rendered. These images are played together in sequence at a rate of 24 frames per second to create the final animated film.

What makes a photographer influential? Photographers capture emotion, represent stories, and convey history. If you look at portraits of modern celebrities, you are likely to come across the name Annie Leibniz. She has taken portraits of everyone from John Lennox and Queen Elizabeth II to Michael Jackson and Bill Gates. Her photographs have appeared in a number of different fashion and music magazines over the course of her career. Leibniz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1949. Her father was a member of the United

States Air Force, and the family moved frequently around the world. It was in the Philippines that Leibniz took some of her first photographs, and her interest in art and music flourished in high school. Returning to the United States after living in Israel, Leibniz took a Job with Rolling Stone magazine. Her first cover image appeared on January 12, 1971, and she became the chief photographer for the magazine in 1973. For the next ten years, her style of photographing celebrities helped to define not only the magazine that she worked for, but also the style of portraits that appeared in other magazines and mediums.

In the sass, Leibniz left Rolling Stone and went to work for Vanity Fair, continuing to photograph celebrities for the magazine. Leibniz continues to photograph celebrities, producing often- talked-about portraits. 1 1. 2 Ansell Adams Ansell Adams is credited with moving photography into the realm of fine art. Known for his black and white photographs of the western United States, Adams took landscape photographs that brought remote places to people long before travel was possible and highlighted environmental concerns. Ansell Adams, born in February 1902 in San Francisco, California, was an only child.

Drawn to nature at an early age, e explored the sea coast and collected insects. He was also trained as a concert pianist. During a family trip to Yosemite National Park, Adams’ father gave him a Kodak Brownie camera, beginning his love for photography. Adams returned to the park the following year to do more photography. He learned darkroom techniques by working part time for a photo finisher. At seventeen, Adams Joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving natural spaces, and spent several summers as the caretaker for its lodge in the Yosemite Valley.

In 1921, Adams sold his first photographs. Despite experimenting with different photograph techniques, Adams referred realism. In 1927, he completed his first portfolio and earned about $3,900, which led to commercial assignments for portraits. By 1931, Adams had his first solo museum exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution that featured sixty photographs he had taken of the Sierra Mountains. With Edward Weston, M. H. De Young Museum, and Imagine Cunningham, Adams formed Group f/64, with a commitment to “straight” photography instead of artistic interpretation.

The name came from the small aperture setting (f/64) which gave the greatest depth of field for a photograph. Adams also opened his own photography gallery in San Francisco. One of Adams’ contributions to photography was the development of his Zone System. The Zone System was a way of adjusting the exposure in a photograph to maximize shadows and highlights. It separated the tones between white and black into eleven different zones that corresponded to an f/stop, with middle gray at the center. The system helped to correctly expose a photograph to avoid being under- or overexposed.

A photographer would choose an area of the photograph, meter the area, and then adjust the exposure using the system to put the area of the photograph into the exposure that best measures the area. For example, if you are photographing a mountain scene, bright snow might be metered at a zone V (5), but you want it at a zone IX (9). Using the system, you would know to increase the f/stop by four f/stops to get the exposure that you want for the photograph. The Zone System was later applied to color film and with digital images. 1 1. Edward Weston Edward Weston emphasized the beauty of natural form. His photographs reveal and focus on the natural form of a single item, taken in sharp detail. His photographs are among the most expensive ever sold. Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois in 1886. He received his first camera, a Kodak Bulls-Eye No. 2, as a present for his sixteenth birthday. He took the camera on a family vacation in the Midwest before buying a 5 x 7 camera and beginning to learn darkroom techniques. Soon, he was photographing Chicago parks and the areas around his aunt’s farm.

In 1906, he submitted a photograph to Camera and Darkroom, which published the photograph in a full-page reproduction. In 1906, Weston moved to California, but moved back to Illinois a year later to attend the Illinois School of Photography. After finishing the coursework, Weston again moved to California and began work in several hoteliers’ studios, learning the business. In 1911, he opened “The Little Studio” and took photographs of children and friends, gaining recognition for his work. In the sass, Weston attention shifted to the everyday objects such as seashells, fruits, and vegetables.

Weston began the “Edward Weston Print of the Month” to create income. For five dollars a month, subscribers received a limited edition print from his work. Success was minimal with only about eleven subscribers to the program. In 1937, Weston received the first ever Guggenheim Foundation grant for a photographer, which allowed Weston to travel and photograph. The following year, he received another grant and published Seeing California with Edward Weston, another publication of his travels, in 1939. The following year, California and the West was published.

In 1945, Weston began to exhibit signs of Parkinson disease. By 1948, he was no longer physically able to use a camera but continued to exhibit his work and publish some of the photographs that he had taken earlier in his life. He died in 1958. One of his favorite beaches, and the subject of many photographs in Point Lobos, California, was later renamed Weston Beach in his honor. 1 1. 4 Throated Lange Best remembered for her images of the Southern poor and those starting over in the West, Throated Lange documented the hard times of the Depression era and revealed social difficulties.

Her iconic images have come to be the face of the Depression. Lange was born in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. After a childhood marked by polio, Lange became an informal apprentice in several New York photography studios. She moved to San Francisco in 1918 and opened her own studio. When the Great Depression hit the United States in the late sass, Lange was moved to document the people hardest hit by the financial crisis. She was hired by the Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration. Lane’s photographic focus was the unemployed and homeless.

In 1941, Lange worked for the War Relocation Authority to document the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans on the West Coast to relocation camps. She photographed the relocation process and the lives of the Japanese Americans in the camps, focusing most of her attention on Manager, one of the first permanent relocation camps in California. The government considered the photographs too critical of the relocation and impounded them; they are now available for viewing through the National Archives. After WI, Lange continued her work in photography with a slightly different position than her earlier social commentary work.

Ansell Adams offered Lange a faculty position at the California School of Fine Arts, which had the first fine arts photography department. Lange also helped to co-found the photography magazine Aperture. In 1965, at the age of 70, Throated Lange died of esophageal cancer. As a woman, Lange also served as an inspiration for other female photographers working in a field that was at that time dominated by men. 11. 5 Alfred Assassinated Called the “father of photojournalism,” Alfred Assassinated is known for his candid hotplates and spontaneous moments.

Essentialist’s most famous image is of a United States sailor in uniform kissing a woman in a white dress, taken on the day that World War II ended. Assassinated was born in Germany in 1898. His interest in photography began when he was given a Kodak camera at the age of fourteen. After serving in the German army during World War l, Assassinated began working as a freelance photographer. He sold his first photograph in the sass and began taking photographs for the agency that would become the Associated Press in 1928. In 1935, Assassinated immigrated to the United States, as Germany became more oppressive awards Jews.

He would reside in New York for the rest of his life and work for Life magazine for more than thirty-five years. During his career, Assassinated photographed musicians, politicians, writers, and royalty. But his candid photographs, often of unknown people, became his legacy and illustrated the need to be ready to capture spontaneous moments. Assassinated said, “l still use, most of the time, existing light and try not to push people around. I have to be as much a diplomat as a photographer. People often don’t take me seriously because I carry so little equipment and make so little fuss. “

How to build a pinhole camera

Materials needed

• Ruler
• Sturdy cardboard box
• Black tape
• Black paper
• Black paint
• No. 10 sewing needle
• Craft knife
• Aluminum foil
• Film or photographic paper

Instructions

1. Make sure your container is light-proof and allows no light leaks. Cover up any holes, cracks or crevices with black tape, but leave an opening such as a flap to insert and remove film. Boxes should be made of durable cardboard or stiff paper, and lids and flaps should close securely.
2. Black out your camera. Line the inside of the box with black paper to prevent reflections and to protect against unwanted light filtering through. Preventing light seepage is important, as the light you do allow in to the camera should be very controlled.
3. Cut inch hole opposite the box opening with a craft knife. Make the pinhole by puncturing a number 10 sewing needle through a small square of aluminum foil measuring about 3-by-2 inches, rotating the needle as you push it through. Stop pushing the needle through when it is halfway in.
4. Tape the foil over the -inch hole on the inside of the box. Kodak recommends positioning the pinhole 3 to 6 inches from where the film will be placed.
5. Make the shutter by taping a piece of opaque black paper over the pinhole. You can make a shutter from wood or plastic by screwing it onto the body so that it covers the pinhole completely when not in use.
6. Load the film into the box in a completely darkened room. Use a small square of photographic paper or sheet film like Kodak Tri-X Pan Professional Film. A typical box arger than 3-by-4 inches will need film or paper that measures about 2 -by-3 inches; simply cut to size. Load the film so that the shiny (emulsion) side faces the pinhole. Tape the film or paper down at the corners so that it does not come loose.

Exposure refers to the amount of time that film or paper is exposed to light when taking the picture. Keep your camera as steady as possible when taking the picture; you may need to set it down on a flat surface. The exposure time varies from 2 to 8 minutes for photographic paper and from 1 to 8 seconds for film.

Choose the lower end of the spectrum for bright light conditions and the higher end for a cloudy day or dim lighting. Develop as normal. How does a pinhole camera work? A pinhole camera is a simple camera without lens and has a small hole to let light in called an aperture. A pinhole camera is an effectively light-proof with a small hole in one side. Light passes through the aperture and projects an upside-down image on the opposite side of the box. The smaller the hole the smaller and sharper the image will be that is projected.

Cameras nowadays are better than ever before with enhanced technology, high quality shots, and that images can now be digitally stored instead of worrying about wasting film. There are still some issues about the cameras such as high pricings or weather conditions, but you can agree that cameras now have improved extremely than when cameras are first invented decades ago. Some types of old cameras have come back to life, combined with the technology today to stay relevant to the current trend of digitalisation.

The most prominent cameras right now that people use especially professional and amateur photographers is a DSLR camera. DSLR stands for “Digital Single-Lens Reflex” due to the added digital imaging sensor to a SLR camera. DSLR cameras captures digital wise now, it requires a memory card or an SD card to store images digitally, in contrast of storing film.

People were interested and love the incoming of DSLR cameras that during the 2000s, DSLR have already replaced SLR cameras. This was a huge step in the technology of cameras and DSLRs that it has evolved from film camera era and keeps on improving digital cameras years later. As of 2018, they remained the most common type of interchangeable lens cameras.

DSLR was first created in 1975 by an engineer named Steven Sasson of Eastman Kodak. The first digital camera came from a challenge given by his employers to see if there was any practical use for a charged couple device (C.C.D). He was the man responsible for the process of digitalisation, turning electric pulses into numbers and having those to help create an image.

The camera had a resolution of 0.01 megapixels and weighs 3.6 kg. The materials he used are very different to what cameras are made of now such as having a portable cassette recorder, analogue / digital converter and a dozen of circuits wired on circuit boards. His camera took 23 seconds to capture an image and 30 more for the black and white image to develop in the cassette tape (The camera’s “memory card”). The camera he invented was just for technical exercise only however and was never made for production until years later by other companies.

Comparing to today’s cameras, they have better image quality and more advanced. Take the Canon EOS 6D Mark II as an example. The full frame DSLR camera was announced on 29 June 2017 and it is the first camera to feature an LCD screen due to only crop sensor cameras have this feature.

Professional photographers like this feature so that they can discover new camera angles that most full frame cameras cannot do without the LCD screen. It has a resolution of 26.2 megapixels that is even greater than the first DSLR camera and only weighs 685 grams lighter. The images from this camera is stunning with its sharp focus and great work on low light photography.

Mirrorless cameras are one of the few kinds of cameras to have brought back the trend in the early 2010s. As the name suggests, this camera does not have an optical mirror inside unlike DSLRs. They also do not have a viewfinder. but you can only see the images on LCD screens which displays what the camera image sensor sees rather than what the lens sees.

Without the mirror, the camera body is smaller, lightweight and more compact in size which is why they are also called “Compact System Cameras”. This was considered an alternative option for other photographers than DSLRs to reduce equipment such as bigger lenses, tripods, etc.

The first mirrorless camera, the RD1 Digital Rangefinder, consists of only a 6-megapixel APS-C sensor with only a 2-inch LCD screen monitor. The handling is similar of an analogue rangefinder. The images taken from this camera is surprisingly in good quality even though this was launch in 2004. What’s more surprising is that this camera came from Epson, the same company that manufactures printers.

Mirrorless cameras are looking to overthrown DSLRs soon or in a few years. However, people have their own opinions about the two cameras and most might still prefer the DSLRs. In my opinion, I still prefer DSLRs although I’m interested to test out mirrorless cameras someday and test some couple of shots with it.

Polaroid or instant cameras is the other kind of camera that came back due to the nostalgia of developing a printed image right after taking the picture. Polaroid cameras uses self-developing film for the printing process. Young adults and some adults love having these cameras for a throwback and that they can capture and print images for memories and put them up for decoration. The first polaroid camera, the “95 Land Camera” was dated back in 1948. Its large and bulky size is very different to the polaroid cameras that are produced now such as the popular Instax instant cameras.

The Instax cameras are the well-known polaroid cameras today marketed by Fujifilm. This camera was made by a collaboration of polaroid companies such as Fujifilm, Polaroid Corporation and Lomography. In 2016, sales of Instax cameras have risen to 5 million units. These are available in three unique formats; Mini, Wide and Square.

The only disadvantage of this is that Fujifilm didn’t make the cameras able to do colour and black and white together. For instance, if you have a colour only Instax camera and you like your printed image to be black and white, you’ll need to buy their black and white film packs. Nonetheless, the printed images are good, but sometimes the highlights can be blown out a bit because of the intense flash that the camera provided.

Fujifilm then created the most advance polaroid camera ever made. The Instax Square SQ10 is a hybrid camera that combines the mechanics of a polaroid camera and the technology of digital cameras today. You can now view the images you’ve taken through the camera’s new display before even printing them. The Instax Square also has internal memory to be able to store the images you’ve captured and a micro SD card slot for more storage.

One of the most notable features in this camera is that you can now edit or add filters to images before printing them out. This was a bit of a breakthrough for polaroid cameras as this has never been done before since the first polaroid camera exist. The camera also includes some settings from DSLRs such as double exposure, bulb, macro and thumbnail print.

Finally, you can also print as many copies of an image as you can if you would like to send another copy of the image to a friend. This might be the start for the future of Polaroid cameras such as adding more settings from DSLRs and virtual video from images that you can scan the printed image with your phone and the image transforms to a short video.

Overall, cameras nowadays are doing their best quality of images for all levels of photography. Inspiring photographers should learn and try out these other cameras other than just DSLRs to experience and learn its features. Maybe at the end of the day, they have their right to decide which camera would they want for the best of their photography work.

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Crescendo’s photographs draw on Gothic Romantic and he as an artist’s focuses on dramatic surrealists. Known for overtly cinematic photographs that use tricks of light to convey their mystery. Photographs: often of suburban scenes that exude the kind of eerie terror of Hitchcock films. His photography advocates unanswered questions that the viewer can than answer them Correspond tryst to create transparency, a “perfect representation” and a “perfect world. (he does not want grain, pixels, His photos shift focus in the series of away from the strangeness of ordinary life Into the heightened surrealists of dream and fantasy Example o Figurative interior o Subject matter: A figure sitting on the bed, surrounded by roses and twigs, there is a further trail of twigs scattered on the ground leading from the living room to the omens bed, there are two doorways, one gives you a glimpse of the bathroom, the other leads too living room. Large depth of feel because we are able to see into the background Socrates atmosphere using all this light o The color pallet Is balanced by the lighting (subdued warm brown)o (contrast between Interior, night and roses, making the figure stand out) o Taken at levelly and It Is wide angled. O Domestic in time voyeur – looking from outside in o Draws on fears and anxieties. O Ugliness has been made beautiful

Kodak and Fujifilm Kodak and Fujifilm are well known companies in the households in the United States and across the world. Few people know the actual history of both companies and the competition they have been in over the years. It’s an interesting history on how both companies started and how they have developed and challenged each other over the years. George Eastman, who was the founder of Kodak, started his business career as a 14-year old boy when he had to quit school and work to support his mother and two sisters. Mr.

Eastman had a gift for organization and management while his lively and inventive mind made him a successful entrepreneur by his mid-twenties. What sparked the idea of a simple camera was that his coworker suggested he make a record of his vacation to Santo Domingo. As a result, he became absorbed with photography and wanting to simplify the photography process. Eastman started Kodak in 1880 and built it on four basic principles: mass production at low cost, international distribution, extensive advertising, and a focus on the customer.

Later on he added the following policies: foster growth and development through continuing research, treat employees in a fair, self-respecting way, and reinvest profits to build and extend the business. Mr. Eastman started the company by manufacturing dry plates for sale to photographers. One mishap almost shut down the company when dry plates that were sold went bad. Eastman came up with a quick solution to recall the bad plates and replace them with a good product. His quick thinking saved the company and the company’s reputation.

Mr. Eastman began experiments that focused on the use of a lighter and more flexible support than glass. He began advertising to the public to look out for a new product that will prove an economical and convenient substitute for glass dry plates for outdoors and studio work. Once he started perfecting the transparent roll film and the roll holder, Eastman realized he would have to reach out to the general public and amateur photography. The Kodak camera debuted in 1888. They developed the slogan “you press the button, we do the rest. Kodak made the process of taking and developing pictures easy and accessible to nearly everyone. Kodak has led the way with a plentitude of new products and processes that makes photography simpler, more useful and enjoyable. The company Kodak has grown to be is known not only for photography but also for images used in leisure, commercial, entertainment and scientific applications. They are constantly developing technology to combine images and information which is creating the potential to greatly change how businesses and people communicate.

Eastman’s goal was to make photography “as convenient as the pencil” while Kodak is continuing to expand the ways images touch people’s lives. Kodak continues to rank as a premier multinational corporation and with a brand that is recognized in nearly every country. Kodak has been involved in technological innovation throughout the motion picture industry as well as the health imaging industry, document imaging, printing and publishing, and space exploration. Mr. Eastman believed employees should have more than good wages. He believed that worker’s goodwill and loyalty contributed to the prosperity of an organization.

Eastman started the “Wage Dividend” in which each employee benefited from the yearly dividend on the company stock above his or her wages. The wage dividends represented a large part of the company’s net earnings; the wage dividends were viewed as an innovation. To show even more appreciation to his employees, Eastman gave one-third of his own holdings of company stock to his employees. He also provided them with a retirement annuity, life insurance and disability benefit plans. (History of Kodak) Fujifilm was established in 1934 in Japan.

Fujifilm has established itself as a leader in in the motion picture photography, videotape, audio tape and floppy disc industries. The company is also involved in still cameras, camcorders, photofinishing equipment, paper and chemicals, imaging and information products for office and medical use markets. The company first started out producing motion picture film, dry plates and photographic paper. It was hard to develop brand recognition at first partly because of the competition with Eastman Kodak. Because of this, Fujifilm focused on improving the quality of the products it developed.

Since the company was focused on the quality of the products, it developed its first film product and a motion picture negative film which proved to many in Japan that Fujifilm was technically proficient in the motion-picture industry. After World War II, Fuji was able to begin exporting film and optical products to South America and Asia. The postwar boom was a great advantage to Fuji with the demands for new products to be developed. One downfall for Eastman Kodak but an advantage to Fuji was when Kodak agreed to let Fuji produce black and white amateur roll film during 1952 and three more black and white roll film products by 1958.

The company became the number one manufacturer of consumer films in Japan. Because of the agreement with Kodak this opened doors for Fuji and they were able to make more export agreements and opened sales offices in other countries, including the United States. (Photography Type – The History of Fujifilm, Part I, 2010) Fujifilm still had to overcome two major challenges: Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm’s reputation for below-par film product. Fuji tackled the challenge of film product and developed film and paper that was compatible with the processing systems mostly used worldwide.

In 1969 all of their films, photo paper and chemicals completely matched the processing systems. They saw a significant upsurge in their exports. The other challenge was going head to head with Kodak which they took on full-force. When Fuji entered the US market, it introduced a cartridge-film eight-millimeter home movie system. Kodak retaliated with introducing their system which swept Fuji aside and took control of the world market. The market started to notice that Fuji’s film was faster than Kodak’s and produced warmer tones.

Fuji advertised making sure amateurs and professionals knew the difference while Kodak continued to concentrate on the beginner/amateur consumers. In 1972, Fuji marketed a film in the US with their name on it. Fuji gained its first significant market share with this product. To try and stay ahead of Kodak, Fuji had to develop, manufacture and market equivalent products quickly before Kodak released new products. By 1980, Fuji was the third largest film producer and stayed competitive by increasing its prices a lot less than the other manufactures.

The also took advantage of the growing consumer demand for audio and videotapes. Their early marketing to amateur and professionals paid off since many amateurs wanted to shoot pictures with high quality film. This boosted Fuji’s status to the second largest film manufacturer. A major advantage Fuji had was researching electronic technology before Kodak. Fuji beat Kodak out for a 1984 Olympics sponsorship which was a huge breakthrough for Fuji. Fuji also took full advantage of the untapped market of disposable cameras. They sold 1. million cameras in 6 months which took them to the top as the number one global camera manufacturer in 1992. Fuji introduced the first digital camera in 1988 which was a historical moment in the camera industry. Fuji has been an innovative competitor since the start of the company. (Photography Type – The History of Fujifilm, Part II, 2010) Kodak failed to grasp the importance of the complex environmental changes that were occurring in the industry. They didn’t react fast enough to stay as the leading company in the industry and Fujifilm took advantage of that.

While Kodak had the technological skills to develop products, their rigid leadership culture prevented them from adapting with the changes taking place. Kodak had the “mentality of perfect products, rather than the high-tech mindset of make it, launch it, fix it. ” Fujifilm embraced the changes that were occurring in the photographic market. They diversified through acquisition and changed its business model to conquer digital photography with a commitment to innovation and new technologies. Fuji showed a technological discontinuity by developing the first digital camera.

This shows they are innovative and creative in their thinking and think ahead of what is happening in the industry. (Integrated Company Analysis, 2009) One major management concept that has impacted both Fuji and Kodak are their marketing strategies. While Kodak was focused on marketing to amateur photographers, Fuji took it a step beyond and focused on amateurs and professionals. This has had a huge impact on both companies. Kodak is focused on positioning itself as providing user-friendly products while the quality of some of their products contradict that claim.

This has kept Kodak from advancing as they should have while Fuji has seen a huge benefit from their marketing strategy. I view Fujifilm as a prospector since they think outside of the box and look at what is needed in the future. Kodak started out originally as a prospector but has turned to be a reactor. Kodak is at the point where they are developing products in response to products being released from their competitors, mainly Fujifilm. I believe that Kodak needs to look at their current situation and assess what they need to do to become more profitable again and rebuild their reputation.

I can see Kodak using the retrenchment strategy for the redevelopment of the company. One action that leaves it questionable about Fujifilm’s ethical approach is when Kodak filed a complaint with the United States that Fuji was blocking their products from entering the Japanese market. Looking at the situation, it could be the Japanese government that had the ethical and social responsibility for these actions. The blocking of Kodak entering the Japanese market maintained the Fujifilm’s profits while it stopped potential revenue for Kodak.

Even if the Japanese government would let Kodak sell its products in Japan, the Japanese citizens would most likely still purchase Fujifilm since that is the product that they recognize and are familiar with. Kodak over the years has slowed down it’s adaptation to the market condition changes. When Mr. Eastman was in charge, the business stayed ahead of the industry and adapted well. As the years have gone by that situation has changed to where Kodak reacts after changes have been made. Their reactions are to produce a product so fast that it makes inferior products, which has affected Kodak’s reputation in the industry.

Fujifilm adapts well to the change in the market conditions. In fact, they are in the forefront of anticipating what is needed next by the consumers. One way a company should build in flexibility is to have openness. Company executives need to be open to new ideas, information sources, and roles. Typically companies stick with the routine processes and don’t consider ideas that may be suggested by people and other sources outside of the company. Some companies are not receptive to ideas that are internally suggested by their own employees either.

In order to prosper and advance, company executives need to be able and willing to take ideas and suggestions into consideration. Another way to build in flexibility is the processes of decision making. Companies need to analyze how and if their decision process works. They need re-examine the assumptions that bring the decision to a given point. Executives also should refine their plans according with the brief feedback they receive. Companies have to be careful not to develop a competitive inertia where they are reluctant to change their current strategies because they want to keep their current processes which have been successful so far.

A third way is to develop a shadow strategy task force. Companies need to analyze themselves and determine what their weaknesses are to be able to make adjustments to strengthen them. One way to look at your weaknesses is to think like your competitors and try to determine how the company can be exploited for competitive advantage. The company should have a wide range of employees on the task force to provide opinions, suggestions and information instead of the task force being only executives.

Companies can learn a lot from researching Kodak and Fujifilm’s history. Their history shows how strong companies can be and the bumps in the road they encounter by not adapting to change and competition. There is definitely a lesson in what to do and what not to do as you are building your company and making it stronger throughout the years. References: 1. History of Kodak. Retrieved November 5, 2012, from http://www. kodak. com/ek/US/en/Our_Company/History_of_Kodak/Imaging-_the_basics. htm 2. Photography Type – The History of Fujifilm, Part I (2010).

Retrieved November 5, 2012, from http://www. photographytalk. com/photography-articles/1682-photography-tipthe-history-of-fujifilm-part-1 3. Photography Type – The History of Fujifilm, Part II (2010). Retrieved November 5, 2012, from http://www. photographytalk. com/photography-articles/1686-photography-tipthe-history-of-fujifilm-part-2 4. Integrated Company Analysis – Kodak. Fall 2009. Wisconsin School of Business. Retrieved from http://business. library. wisc. edu/resources/kavajecz/09%20Fall/kodak_rep. pdf