Disc Cameras, Eastman Kodak Company, October 1982

The Eastman Kodak Company had long been at the forefront of new developments in pocket camera technology. Over the years, the company had introduced camera models with various unique and useful features, including built-in flash capabilities and instant print film. In 1982, the company decided to create an entirely different style of pocket camera, the Disc.

As the ad stated, the Disc had a built-in flash with an extremely rapid flash rate, a feature that was quite unusual among pocket camera models of the day. It also boasted an automatic advance function which eliminated the need to manually advance the film after each exposure. The most prominent innovation, however, was the shape and structure of the film itself. Rather than a roll of film encased in a plastic cartridge, the Disc camera's film pack consisted a flat rotating disc with a capacity of 15 exposures. Because the disc was so thin, it allowed Kodak to design a camera body that was slimmer and more compact than its traditional pocket cousins such as the Instamatic.

A slender pocket camera with many automatic features seemed like a good idea in theory, and many consumers agreed, as more than 25 million Disc cameras were sold between 1982 and 1988. But for all the nifty features, the Disc suffered from one major and fundamental flaw: picture quality. Because the area for the negative was confined to a tiny rectangle on the edge of the disc rather than the larger space of traditional film rolls and cartridges, the resolution of the photos was limited, and photos often appeared grainy and blurred when developed from the discs, especially if they were enlarged. Additionally, many photo finishers did not have the necessary equipment required to process the Disc negatives, so this resulted in longer waits for the finished prints. These drawbacks, plus the growing popularity of lower-priced 35mm models, eventually caused the public to lose interest in the Disc cameras, and Eastman Kodak ceased production of them in early 1988. Film discs continued to be manufactured until December 1999, and nearly 17 years later, only a few photo developers still process Disc film.

It's interesting that digital and smartphone cameras have become smaller and smaller, all without sacrificing picture quality or features. With analog cameras such as the Disc, unfortunately, miniaturization came at a price.