Kodak’s leaders monitored all of these developments and encouraged experimentation with digital technology in the company labs. But they never seemed to admit to themselves that the future was digital. Even when pushed by their partners and suppliers, they were slow to move. Often this reluctance emerged from a kind of scientific pride: Film is simply superior to digital. It was hard for them to imagine that the public would abandon a superior technology for an inferior one. (An ironic attitude, of course, for the company that had offended photo snobs with its Brownie camera.)
Now to think how far digital photography has come. Now a part of our lives, the default, and in fact a product differentiator outside the domain of photography equipment altogether. Phones now come in different tiers by the quality of their cameras. I was making decisions in 2000. We’ve come a long way.
