History

He Created The First Digital Camera In 1975 But His Bosses Snubbed His Invention!

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8 years ago

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Sep 10, 2015 08:04am EDT

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Mark Andrew

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Sasson took the initiative to demonstrate the camera’s revolutionary capabilities to Kodak executives ranging from the marketing, technical, and business departments but as I said, nobody was interested.

Sasson could only lament:

“They were convinced that no one would ever want to look at their pictures on a television set. Print had been with us for over 100 years, no one was complaining about prints, they were very inexpensive, and so why would anyone want to look at their picture on a television set?”

The company, however, allowed him to continue working on digital cameras, image compression and memory cards.

In 1978, the first digital camera was patented. Sasson, however, was asked not to talk publicly about it or to show it with anyone outside Kodak.

In 1989, Sasson and Robert Hills created the first single-lens reflex camera.

Photo credit: BRW

This modern digital camera looks and functions pretty much like most cameras today. It had a 1.2 megapixel sensor and it used image compression and memory cards.

Unfortunately, Kodak again declined the idea of mass producing the invention since it might probably hurt the film sales.

According to Sasson:

“When we built that camera, the argument was over. It was just a matter of time, and yet Kodak didn’t really embrace any of it. That camera never saw the light of day.”

Owning the patent, however, made Kodak billions of money since those who wanted to manufacture digital cameras had to pay the company before they can use the technology.

Today, the Sasson’s first digital camera is displayed at the Smithsonian national Museum of American History. In 2009, Steven Sasson was invited to the White House to be awarded with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barrack Obama himself.

In an ironic turn of events, Eastman Kodak, the very company that snubbed the invention, had to file for bankruptcy three years after that. No one was buying films anymore just as Sasson predicted several decades ago.