June 25 - 5:00pm EDT   Maker of medium format cameras, digital backs and lenses, Phase One, along with Leaf Photography, which manufactures medium-format digital camera backs, on Thursday announced they have collaborated to create a new company called Leaf Imaging that has purchased assets of the Leaf camera business. This includes the Leaf product name, engineering design and production tools. [full story]

June 22 - 9:50am EDT   Kodak on Monday announced it has released its new EasyShare S730 digital picture frame. While it doesn't have Wi-Fi, it can still operate wirelessly thanks to a built-in rechargeable battery. Fully charged, the battery gives the 7-inch frame one hour of operating life. Kodak has also introduced a new Picture Finder feature that lets users categorize and find images by date. There is a Slideshow viewing mode, which can display images alone or along with a clock or calendar, while a Collage mode shows four random images at the same time. [full story]

June 22 - 8:10am EDT   Kodak this morning said it would soon phase out its longstanding Kodachrome film, putting an end to a significant era of film photography. The company says it plans to end the 74-year production as sales of the classic film now make up less than one percent of its film camera business, which itself is in the minority at Kodak. About 70 percent of the company's income is from digital photography. [full story]

May 20 - 3:50pm EDT   Sony is bringing its TransferJet wireless data transmission technology closer to production by announcing recently it is now accepting licensing applications from interested companies. A Wednesday report has Sony taking "adopter" membership from companies that are interested in incorporating TransferJet into their products. TransferJet, which operates on a 4.5GHz radio frequency, lets users transfer data between portable devices at up to 375Mbps when they are about an inch apart. It is faster than wired USB 2.0 and FireWire connections and is supported by Japan, the US, European Union members and South Korea. [full story]

May 11 - 4:40pm EDT   Scientists at the University of Rochester working with researchers at Eastman Kodak have created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light instead of regularly wasting energy as heat, as current individual molecules tend to, according to a weekend PhysOrg report. Developing the nanocrystal further could result in brighter LED lights, less expensive lasers and thinner TVs and displays. When the molecule is emitting photons as heat, it goes dark, and is thus said to be blinking. [full story]

March 24 - 12:00pm EDT   Sprint is hoping to embed its cellular networking in devices from at least Garmin, Kodak and SanDisk, a leak (registration required) on Tuesday suggests. The Wall Street Journal claims to known an individual aware of talks that would see Sprint provide Internet access on these partners' devices as it does with Amazon's Kindle 2. Such deals would have similar arrangements and have companies pay in bulk for the data used on the network rather than demand regular subscription fees from the device owners. [full story]

March 3 - 7:35am EST   Kodak today reserved a single camera for PMA with an updated entry level camera in the EasyShare Z series. The 10-megapixel Z915 adopts a semi-pro camera body to get a 10X, image stabilized lens but is designed more for typical home users with software features like fully-automated scene detection (here called Smart Capture) as well as powering the camera through AA batteries that are more friendly to vacationers than lithium-ion packs. [full story]

February 23 - 4:15pm EST   LG Electronics on Friday has requested that a trade panel investigates a possible digital cell phone camera patent infringement by Eastman Kodak, says a Monday report. The International Trade Commission made the announcement and will investigate the accusation. If it deems a patent has indeed been infringed upon, it has the power to order the offending company to stop importing the infringing devices into the United States. Last week, Samsung filed a similar complaint against Kodak. [full story]

January 28 - 5:05pm EST   Kodak in a subdued launch has introduced a new 10.2-megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera, the EasyShare C180. It targets the very entry level and sports 3x optical zoom lens with 5x digital zoom compensating for its shorter range. Built-in features nonetheless include face detection, blur reduction and the ability to display taken photos as slideshows on the 2.4-inch display. [full story]

January 4 - 5:45pm EST   Kodak on Sunday has slipped out its launch plans for CES that start with one of the farthest-reaching high-zoom cameras available. Despite its name, the Z980 is considered a successor to the Z1000-series cameras and contains a new 26mm lens that can zoom up to 24X versus the company's previous best 15X lenses. It can also shoot relatively close-up thanks to a wide angle design and is hardware stabilized to cut back on blur. A new 12-megapixel sensor and native 720p video capture will be part of the design when it ships in the spring for $400. [full story]

December 16 - 2:20pm EST   Kodak has released its new app for the iPhone, the Kodak Gallery iPhone App. It gives Kodak Gallery subscribers anytime access to their online galleries and supports uploading photos taken by the iPhone. Users can browse photos, play back slideshows, or view random images with the shake-it-up feature and the app supports sharing photos from the iPhone's contact list. Tapping, zooming and tilting functions are supported as well. [full story]

December 15 - 4:45pm EST   Kodak's 7.6-inch organic LED (LED) digital photo frame introduced back in September is now available for purchase at Amazon, priced at a heady $1,000. The widescreen frame combines a resolution of 800x480 with an HDTV-like 30,000:1 contrast ratio. The new technology also allows a full 180-degree viewing angle both horizontally and vertically. [full story]

November 18 - 7:50am EST   Kodak late Monday filed a lawsuit against LG and Samsung, accusing the two Korean companies of infringing on digital photography patents. The complaint, filed in a Western District court in Kodak's home state of New York, charges both LG and Samsung with copying Kodak techniques for capturing, compressing, previewing and storing photos and still images. [full story]

November 14 - 2:45pm EST   Matrox has introduced a unique camera that aims to resolve many of the problems of image recognition. Normally known for its graphics cards, the company's Iris GT includes a near netbook-class system with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 256MB of memory, and Windows CE 6 that let it run apps designed to recognize different content. Users can have it perform simple barcode scanning or more complex tasks like measuring objects and recognizing patterns, including text. It can also compensate for visual artifacts generated by the lens. [full story]

November 2 - 10:40pm EST   Motorola and T-Mobile today set the launch for the ZINE ZN5 on the American carrier's network. The candybar phone is Motorola's first true photo-centric phone and comes with a five-megapixel, Kodak co-designed camera with dedicated controls, autofocus and Xenon flash. Its T-Mobile guise lets users upload photos directly to T-Mobile's MyAlbum photo collections as well as through the MMS messaging and Kodak Gallery access of the reference version. [full story]