When Kodak announced that it had reached a brand licensing deal with JK Imaging, hardly anybody questioned the move. It meant that Kodak-branded cameras were not a thing of the past — there’s even an upcoming Micro Four Thirds offering — and after all, Kodak probably has standards when making deals like this.

Interestingly, that’s exactly what Kodak said. The company’s corporate affairs spokesperson Krista Gleason was clear that the company has “guidelines and standards in place to protect the brand that each of [its] licensees must follow.” But nevertheless, there is surprisingly little information out there about JK Imaging Ltd itself. Read more…

A week ago, we reported that Kodak had entered into a multi-year agreement with American camera supplier JK Imaging for new lines of Kodak-branded digital cameras. While it’s not uncommon to see this type of deal for low-end cameras, what’s interesting is that the agreement will also result in a Kodak-branded compact system camera. Amateur Photographer writes,

In an interview with Amateur Photographer (AP) at CES on 10 January, Eastman Kodak general manager for Film Capture, Paper and Output Systems, Dennis Olbrich, was asked whether the line-up will include a compact system camera.

Olbrich, who used to work inside Kodak’s camera division, replied: ‘That’s part of the portfolio.’

Polaroid, another beleaguered photo brand, recently signed its own agreement with Sakar International for new Polaroid-branded cameras. That duo is also working on a mirrorless camera system.

Kodak-branded Compact System Camera on Way [Amateur Photographer via Photo Rumors]

We’ve known for a while that Kodak is jumping out of the digital camera game, focusing its attention on printing and, thus, ending an era. But, as it turns out, we haven’t seen the last of the Kodak digital camera — it just won’t be made by Kodak anymore. Read more…