A Long Time In Finance The Turning Point: Kodak's Digital Asteroid
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Mar 20, 2026 
Steve Sasson, the electrical engineer who built the first digital camera, shares firsthand technical history from inside Kodak. He recounts building the prototype, early CCD limits, internal skepticism, secrecy and patent choices. The conversation traces Kodak’s R&D culture, half measures like Advantix, and how the digital and smartphone ecosystems ultimately overturned film.
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First Portable Digital Camera Demonstration
- Steven Sasson built a portable digital camera prototype in 1976 that captured a picture, stored it digitally to tape, and played it back on a TV.
- The device weighed about 8.5 pounds, recorded a 1/20s exposure and took 23 seconds to write each image to tape before playback.
Patent Without A Public Roadmap
- Kodak patented Sasson's work in 1978 but restricted publicity because management feared alarming customers and investors.
- Internally Kodak continued digital R&D, yet publicly forbade discussion until technologies were far closer to market in 2001.
Technological Lead, Business Model Lag
- Kodak invented much of the digital camera architecture and built megapixel sensors, yet struggled to find a business model matching film's margins.
- Management delayed commercial push because film delivered high, reliable profits and digital adoption felt decades away.