Kodak Disc 4000

The popularity of drop in film cartridges, such as 126 and 110 film, helped spark the innovative design of the disc film format. A circular disc with 15 tiny 8x10mm negatives that rotated into place after each exposure.

The base model was the Disc 2000 which used a replaceable 9 volt battery. The more advanced Disc 4000 had a integral lithium battery and an automatic low light detection.

Most all of the Disc cameras were fitted with a plastic aspheric lens that was protected by a sliding cover. Prints from the negatives were not very sharp, even with the aspheric lens design. This was mainly due to the negative size, which was slightly less than that of 110 size. Even 4x6 prints were pretty soft and no one would ever think to have an 8x10 made, but many brave souls did anyway.

Surprisingly, the Disc Film was produced until 1998, even though the camera saw an end to production in 1989. Kodak was also using the introduction of APS format to help ease customers dissatisfaction of the end of Disc film. Of course I really doubt very many people were still using the Disc camera by then.

The Disc 2000 sold for about $49.00 and the 4000 was $69.00, with many models in between the 4000 and the deluxe Disc 8000 that sold for $150.00. This souped up model had a gold anodized face plate, cover plate, rapid fire at 3 fps, self timer and even an alarm clock.

Kodak managed to take the Disc camera even a step further with the Tele Disc, which had a optional telephoto lens that could be selected by extending the flash gun. There were a few other final models before it was all said and done, but in the end, after pumping millions of these into the marketplace, there final home would be in the trash piles.

To give you an idea as to how big of a trash pile this would be, it should be noted that Kodak produced over 8 million Disc cameras in the first year of production alone. Even with a production run of only seven years, you can see that a ton of Disc cameras were in the market place at one time or another.

We all know that a serious amateur or professional would not have used a disc camera for their photography, but now after the fact, I feel that any camera from days gone by is of some value. Just to own a piece of old photographic history doesn't mean it has to be pro related.