Repairman Reminisces as Kodak Retires Its Cameras

Eastman Kodak no longer manufacturing its signature product

Tools

By Anthony Mason, CBS News

Story Created: Feb 10, 2012 at 12:03 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 10, 2012 at 12:05 PM AKDT

FOREST HILLS, NEW YORK - It's almost like losing an old friend; news came Thursday is that bankrupt Eastman Kodak will stop making cameras.

Kodak cameras have been part of life in this country for more than a century and whose eyes captured our most cherished memories. CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason takes a stroll down memory lane with a camera repairman.

Last year, a customer brought this camera into Marty Moyal's repair shop.

"You press this button and you pull it out," said Moyal, showing the camera to Mason.

"Wow, that's a beautiful thing," commented Mason

It took his breath away.

"I show everybody who like cameras, look at this one," said Moyal.

The camera in question was made in 1909, a No. 4A folding Kodak Model B. "Amazing. I love this camera," said Moyal.

For 20 years in Forest Hills, New York, up in his second floor workshop, Moyal has been fixing cameras. He can't believe the company that defined the camera business in the 20th century is now abandoning it.

"In the beginning, I was surprised," admitted Moyal. "Kodak?!"

Mason asked Moyal that a lot of people started with these cameras. "This is the beginning of photography," Moyal answered.

Millions of Americans took their first photographs with Kodak's Brownie camera, introduced in 1900. Then in the 1960s, Kodak unveiled the Instamatic.

It was a Kodak engineer who in 1975 invented the digital camera. But in the end Rochester, New York company lost the technology race..

"It's history," Moyal said. "You just cut the history. Just cut it. No more. And it's sad."

Soon the only place you'll find Kodak-made cameras will be in places like Marty Moyal's repair shop.

The Kodak moment is over.

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