Moto-Kodak Cameras? You Bet

Gizmodo has uncovered a leaked photo of what seems to be a new Motorola cell phone with a Kodak-made camera built in. The site also speculates that maybe there's a partnership going on there. And, yes, there certainly is.

Kodak CEO Antonio Perez talked about it last fall when I interviewed him in front of an audience at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, though only a brief mention went into the ensuing magazine Q&A. Below is a chunk of the transcript from that part of the conversation...with hints of how Perez thinks digital cameras will evolve:

PEREZ: Well, next year - you know, you heard a lot, and I'm sure you all have one, you all have what you call a cell cam, a cell phone with a camera? Well, let me tell you what you have. What you have is a cell phone that was designed to be a cell phone, and then they drill a hole in the side and put a sensor in and they say, now you have a cell cam [cell phone?]. (laughter) What you're going to see, starting next year, is a co-designed Motorola/Kodak multifunctional device that has been designed from the beginning to be a phenomenal phone and from the beginning to be a phenomenal camera. And I think you should all buy one. (laughter)

MANEY: And what was he talking about in film, like in video - for instance, things like being able to recognize that it's grass in the picture or things?

PEREZ: Yeah, we have, we have - I gave a speech at CES - not this year, the year before - and said, we have the technology to - what I said is that the digital, there is no such thing as a digital camera yet. In my view, we're not selling digital cameras yet. The industry is selling filmless cameras. And I went back to the story of automobiles. And I don't know if you don't know that, but you might have read this, that the first automobiles, they were called horseless carriages. Because what they did is, they took the carriage as it was, they took the horse away, they put a motor, and then that thing was moving. And they said, well what is this? Well, this is a horseless carriage.

This is what the digital cameras of today are. They really, to make a camera, you basically need only three things. You need a lens; you need a shutter; and you need something that captures the light. In the past, what captured the light was the film. And the whole structure of the camera was around the film. The film was this size and it was flat and it had a little round hole here to put the roll and everything. That was because of the film.

You look at the digital cameras today, they actually look like the old cameras. And they have no reason in the world. I mean, who said that you have to hold a camera? Why do you have to hold a camera? It's because in the other camera you had to hold them, right. You buy cameras - we sell those too - that they have a little thing in the side that is like the place where we used to put the roll. Actually people think when they have that, that it's a better camera. (laughter); [obviously?] it's a better camera. (laughter) And it's all air; there's nothing there. It's just a piece of plastic.

We have, for instance, we have flash. Most of the digital cameras have a flash. Because would only capture so much light. People can see a lot darker [than you?], right. Well, a sensor can see much darker than the (inaudible). So you don't need a flash with a well-designed sensor. Now we are designing those sensors now. Kodak is designing those sensors now, so you will never need a flash, which will make a much better picture.

The idea that you have to change the lens... Well, you have to change the lens all the time because the sensor was, the sensor was the film that occupied all that space, but there's nothing that will stop you now from putting five sensors in a camera. The sensors are very small. So you can have one that is wide angle and one is for distanc[ing?]. So I'm trying to just give you an idea what, the future digital cameras will be very different than these filmless cameras.