When you think about how old is Kodak, you aren’t just looking at a number on a birth certificate. You’re looking at the history of how we remember things. If you’re standing in 2026, the short answer is that the company is 146 years old.
But that "age" is kinda tricky. Depending on who you ask, the clock started at different times. George Eastman didn't just wake up one day with a yellow box and a dream. It was a slow burn. He started the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1880, but the name "Kodak" didn't even exist yet. It was just a weird word he and his mom made up with an Anagrams set because he liked the letter "K." He thought it sounded "strong and incisive."
Honestly, it’s a miracle the company is still here to celebrate any birthday at all. Most people thought they were dead and buried back in 2012 when they filed for bankruptcy. But like a phoenix—or maybe more like a stubborn roll of film that won't stop winding—they’re still kicking.
The Timeline of How Old Is Kodak Really Is
To understand the age of this beast, you have to look at the milestones. It’s not a straight line. It’s a series of re-inventions.
- 1880: George Eastman starts making dry plates in a rented loft in Rochester, New York. This is the "conception" date.
- 1881: The partnership with Henry Strong begins. They officially form the Eastman Dry Plate Company on New Year's Day.
- 1888: The first Kodak camera hits the market. This is the year the world first heard the slogan: "You press the button, we do the rest."
- 1892: The company finally becomes the Eastman Kodak Company of New York.
- 1901: They re-incorporate in New Jersey, which is technically the legal entity that exists today.
So, if you go by the first business venture, they are 146. If you go by the name "Kodak," they are 138. If you go by the current legal incorporation, they are 125.
Regardless of which candle you light, that’s a massive amount of time for a tech company to stay alive. Think about it. Most of the "giants" we talk about today, like Google or Meta, are toddlers compared to Kodak. Even Apple is only 50. Kodak was already a global powerhouse before your great-grandparents were born.
Why the Kodak Age Matters in 2026
You might be wondering why anyone cares about a century-old film company in an era of AI-generated video and instant digital everything. Well, it's because Kodak is currently pulling off one of the weirdest pivots in business history.
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For a long time, the narrative was that Kodak "missed" digital. People love to point out that a Kodak engineer, Steve Sasson, actually invented the first digital camera in 1975. The company supposedly buried it because they didn't want to kill their film profits. While that’s mostly true, it’s a bit of a simplification. They actually spent billions on digital; they just couldn't figure out how to make money when people weren't paying for prints anymore.
Fast forward to today. Kodak isn't really a "camera company" in the way it used to be. If you see a new Kodak-branded digital camera at a big-box store, it's usually just a license deal—meaning another company paid to put the logo on their product.
The real Kodak—the 146-year-old entity in Rochester—is deep into advanced materials and chemicals. They’ve taken all that knowledge they gained from making film (which is basically just a complex chemical sandwich) and applied it to things like EV batteries and pharmaceuticals.
The Great Pension Scare of 2025
Just recently, in late 2025, there was a huge panic. Financial reports started circulating that mentioned "substantial doubt" about Kodak's ability to keep going. People on social media were acting like the lights were being turned off for good.
But it turned out to be a massive misunderstanding of accounting jargon. Because of some weird rules regarding their U.S. pension fund—which, by the way, is huge because of how many thousands of people worked there over the last century—they had to list a "going concern" warning.
By December 2025, they settled the pension issue, cleared out a ton of debt, and basically became "net debt free" for the first time in forever. So, as we sit here in 2026, the old man of Rochester is actually in better financial shape than he has been in decades.
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The Surprising Revival of Analog Film
There’s another reason the age of Kodak is relevant: Film is cool again. Around 2015, something shifted. Young photographers started getting tired of the perfection of digital. They wanted the grain. They wanted the "mistakes." Kodak saw this and actually started bringing old film stocks back from the grave. They revived Ektachrome in 2018. They can barely keep Gold 200 or Portra on the shelves.
The company even launched a new Super 8 camera recently to cater to the film nerds. It’s a bizarre sight—a company that was almost killed by digital technology is now being sustained, in part, by people who find digital technology boring.
What Most People Get Wrong About Kodak’s Age
A lot of people think Kodak is a "failed" company. They use it as a cautionary tale in business school. "Don't be a Kodak," they say.
But failing companies don't last 146 years.
Kodak didn't just fail; they were a victim of their own massive success. At their peak, they had something like 90% market share in the U.S. for film. When you own 90% of a market, the only place to go is down. They were so big that they became an infrastructure, like the electric grid. When the world switched to digital, that infrastructure wasn't needed anymore.
But they didn't disappear. They shrunk. They sold off their patents. They split.
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- Eastman Chemical (the guys who make the actual plastic and chemicals) was spun off in 1994 and is a massive, successful company on its own.
- Kodak Alaris is the separate company that handles a lot of the photo paper and kiosks you see in pharmacies.
The "parent" Kodak stayed in Rochester and focused on commercial printing and materials science. It’s a smaller, leaner version of the giant that once employed over 145,000 people.
Actionable Insights for the "Kodak Moment"
So, what can we actually learn from a company this old? If you're a business owner or just someone interested in history, there are a few takeaways:
- Don't ignore the "weird" stuff. Kodak's engineer built a digital camera that looked like a toaster and recorded 0.01 megapixels to a cassette tape. Management thought it was a toy. Never ignore the toy version of your future.
- Legacy is a double-edged sword. Being 146 years old gives you brand recognition that money can’t buy, but it also gives you massive "legacy costs" like pensions and old factories that are hard to maintain.
- Core competencies matter. Kodak realized they weren't just a "photo" company; they were a "coating and chemistry" company. When photos went away, they looked for other things that needed to be coated with chemicals—like batteries.
If you want to support the longevity of this American icon, the best thing you can do is actually buy a roll of film. It’s one of the few things they still make in the original Rochester factories. Go get an old K1000 or a Canon AE-1 from a thrift store, load it with some Kodak Tri-X, and see what the fuss was about 100 years ago.
Kodak is 146. It’s seen two world wars, the Great Depression, the rise of the internet, and a bankruptcy that should have killed it. It’s still here. And honestly? It’ll probably still be here when we’re all long gone, still figuring out how to coat some new material with some new chemical to change the world again.
Next Steps for You:
If you're curious about the technical side of their survival, look into their recent EV battery coating initiatives. It's the most significant shift in their business model since the 1880s. You can also visit the George Eastman Museum in Rochester if you're ever in Upstate New York—it's the world's oldest photography museum and sits right in Eastman’s old mansion.