Digital Camera Inventor Reflects on Kodak Exit

"It's in a locked box," said Steven Sasson as he describes where his invention is kept in the Kodak headquarters.

Steven Sasson - inventor of the first digital camera - sits in his Parma home.

He retired from Kodak in 2009.

His invention started a photography revolution.

"People sort of lose sight of the fact that even though we didn't talk publicly about technology there was a great deal of pioneering work by Kodak men and women," said Sasson.

The electrical engineer was 25 years old.

"The concept was to take pictures without film and display them without printing called it film less photography when demonstrated on 1976," said Sasson.

School groups have gotten a glimpse of the camera that started it all.

That first digital camera built in 1975 weighed 8.5 pounds, used a Phillips cassette tape to record pictures, and it all played out on a tv screen.

"This was 10,000 pixels or .01 megapixels, only black and white," said Sasson.

Kodak wouldn't make a consumer digital camera until the late 80's.

Now Kodak is exiting that business.

"From technology think they were leaders and intellectual property portfolio they have indicates that but business model changed," said Sasson.

Sasson says film was profitable for Kodak.

And with digital - it couldn't control photo quality from start to finish - something it prided itself on.

"With announcement today a milestone clearly world has changed significantly and the technology used to capture and display has changed significantly," said Sasson.

But Sasson says what won't change is Kodak's presence in the imaging business - even though it will be focused on printing.

He says he is proud of what he helped create.

"I count myself lucky to be part of the group that worked on digital photography at Kodak for over 30 years," said Sasson.

In 2010, Sasson received the National Medal of Technology for his work.