Kodak helps avoid 'Betamax syndrome'

Kodak will store users' digital photographs for life so they don't get caught out by Betamax-style changes in hardware technology.

Announcing the Kodak Digital Preservation service at Comdex Fall 2000 in Las Vegas, Dan Carp, chief executive of Eastman Kodak, cited Betamax video and 5.25in floppy disks as redundant hardware. He warned delegates that digital image storage hardware is also not future proof.

Users drag and drop images on to a Kodak icon on the desktop, from where they are uploaded via the internet to Kodak's servers. There, the files are compressed and put in permanent storage.

Carp said the service would provide "instant and secure access" to both digital and hard copy images for users or for people who had been given access to the pictures, such as future generations.

Kodak also announced a camera that contained Global Positioning System technology, so photographs can be labelled with the exact geographic location at which they were taken.

Carp also showed the Advantix Preview camera, a film-based camera that has a digital preview window. If you don't like a shot, you can't delete it like you can with a fully digital camera, but you can ask the developer not to process it.