Opinion ID: 368855
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Camera Market

Text: 11 The amateur conventional still camera market now consists almost entirely of the so-called 110 and 126 instant-loading cameras. These are the direct descendants of the popular box cameras, the best-known of which was Kodak's so-called Brownie. Small, simple, and relatively inexpensive, cameras of this type are designed for the mass market rather than for the serious photographer. 2 12 Kodak has long been the dominant firm in the market thus defined. Between 1954 and 1973 it never enjoyed less than 61% Of the annual unit sales, nor less than 64% Of the dollar volume, and in the peak year of 1964, Kodak cameras accounted for 90% Of market revenues. Much of this success is no doubt due to the firm's history of innovation. In 1963 Kodak first marketed the 126 Instamatic instant-loading camera, 3 and in 1972 it came out with the much smaller 110 Pocket Instamatic. Not only are these cameras small and light, but they employ film packaged in cartridges that can simply be dropped in the back of the camera, thus obviating the need to load and position a roll manually. Their introduction triggered successive revolutions in the industry. Annual amateur still camera sales in the United States averaged 3.9 million units between 1954 and 1963, with little annual variation. In the first full year after Kodak's introduction of the 126, industry sales leaped 22%, and they took an even larger quantum jump when the 110 came to market. Other camera manufacturers, including Berkey, copied both these inventions but for several months after each introduction anyone desiring to purchase a camera in the new format was perforce remitted to Kodak. 13 Berkey has been a camera manufacturer since its 1966 acquisition of the Keystone Camera Company, a producer of movie cameras and equipment. 4 In 1968 Berkey began to sell amateur still cameras made by other firms, and the following year the Keystone Division commenced manufacturing such cameras itself. From 1970 to 1977, Berkey accounted for 8.2% Of the sales in the camera market in the United States, 5 reaching a peak of 10.2% In 1976. In 1978, Berkey sold its camera division and thus abandoned this market.