Kodak Disc 8000

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This post will be looking at another Kodak camera that is interesting, but like the Kodamatic 980L, wasn’t the number one seller they were hoping for. This is the Kodak Disc 8000.

I have already gone through the history of Kodak in my Kodak 200 plus color and Instamatic pocket 10 posts. So, I will just jump into this camera’s history.

The Disc cameras came out in 1982, during the hype of small pocket-sized cameras and were at first a huge hit, selling eight million units in that year (Retroist 2019)! This camera was also Kodak’s way of asserting their dominance in the armature photography market, by spending ten years researching and developing a new camera that had: “… a fast shutter speed, a wide aperture, and a fixed-focus lens with a large depth of field. These would reduce the likelihood of blurry photos and performance demands on the flash system.  Fixed-focus lenses are cheaper to manufacture and having a large depth of field meant that everything from the foreground to the background would be in focus…” as well as small as possible (Gay 2015).

Kodak really pushed this camera line, so much so that Kodak spent a lot of money in one of their biggest advertisement campaign (Our Own Devices 2025), and even teamed up with Disney to promote this new Disc format at Disney’s new Epcot Center (Kodak). For a time, this new innovation seemed to be Kodak’s big ticket item (Morrell 2014), with Gay (2015) writing: “…the cameras were initially received with great enthusiasm, with disc camera sales moving ‘faster than either the company or industry analysts had expected, despite the nation’s economic problems’ in the first three months on the market. An August 1982 article in the New York Times describes the small camera size, the competitive film pricing, and the camera’s quality and ease of use as attractive points for consumers. The camera seemed ‘destined to join the list of notable Kodak products.’”

Kodak was so confident in their new camera that they even stepped away from the 35mm market (Our Own Devices 2025)! But this upward trajectory fell in the next two years (Gay 2015). The biggest reason: poor picture quality. According to Retroist (2019): “the Disc Camera should have taken photos to at least rival that of other portables. Sadly, when camera owners got their photos back, they noticed that the image quality was generally poor.”

But this was not the only factor, as Retroist (2019) also pointed out that it was also awkward to hold. And Eckman (2022), goes in even further detail to why the disc camera failed, by writing:

“…photofinishers resisted Kodak’s requirement to upgrade their lab equipment to include newer 6-element lenses, instead relying on older 3 and 4 element lenses, which further reduced the image quality of enlargements…”, “…the excitement over the small and flat cameras faded quickly…” and “…the biggest failure of Kodak Disc film was the same exact thing that caused both the Instamatic and Pocket Instamatic film formats to fail, which was the success of regular 35mm film.”

For you see, when Kodak stepped away from the 35mm game, other companies further developed the 35mm cameras, leading to better picture quality that lead to the 35mm cameras to rise back up. Or in better words: “Newer 35mm cameras – providing much better images and more automation along with a choice of film types – had become more popular…” (Jaalvarez 2009).

Kodak first released a few prototype cameras to consumers for testing and feedback (Gay 2015), and then after ten years in 1982, released the Kodak Disc 2000, standard model released worldwide, 4000, US release 6000, that came with a protective cover and the 8000, the camera of this post and the high-end model, that come with a cover that had a built-in clock and alarm system (Our Own Devices 2025).

Kodak Disc 2000. Image Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/db8AAOxyZwpSWc-P/s-l1200.jpg

Kodak Disc 4000. Image Source: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/camerapedia/images/a/a0/Kodak_Disc_4000_Camera.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120615152830

Kodak Disc 6000. Image Source: https://www.oldcamsbyjens.com/cdn/shop/products/kodak-disc-6000-520565.webp?v=1703921919

Kodak also released a few more models to save the disc camera. These were the Tele Disc in 1985, the Disc 3600 and the Disc 4100 and 6100 (limited editions) in 1986. Kodak even licensed out their designs to other companies (Gay 2015).

Kodak Tele Disc. Image Source: https://vintagecameralab.com/wp-content/uploads/kodak-tele-disc_011.jpg

Kodak Disc 3600. Image Source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_NEJZLCBILY/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLBZW98H0Tg2Yp9THFqZ9O6VhMTZ8Q

Kodak Disc 4100. Image Source: https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6009/5927149512_1f0e7a04d2.jpg

Kodak Disc 6100. Image Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/trkAAOSwkBtepnwI/s-l400.jpg

This lead to Fuji, Konica and M3 to make their own film and it even lead to Minolta making their own disc camera, the Disc-7, which had a built-in mirror for… well whatever they called selfies back then (Retroist 2019). But this did not help, and by 1988, disc cameras were no longer being made (Jaalvarez 2009).

Minolta Disc-7. Image Source: https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5066/5641820178_670632ebfa_z.jpg

 Now let us have a look at the camera at hand, the Disc 8000.

The camera’s size is described as: “not much bigger than a cigarette pack” (Morrell 2018), with the size of 132 x 80 x 31 mm and a weight of 222g (Kamerastore 2025). The body is a combination of metal and plastic.

The camera is powered by two 3v lithium batteries, which lasted for “…2,000 exposures or 5 years translating to around 26 film cartridges per year…” and once finished, the user would send the camera to Kodak, so that they can replace the batteries (Our Own Devices 2025).

The Disc 8000 battery compartment. 
Image Source: http://www.jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll/images/kodak/disc/kodak_disc_8000-batteries.jpg

Now time to have a closer look. Starting with the camera cover.

The cover is used for protection and to stop any accidental picture taking when it is in the user’s pocket. And on this cover is a plastic window that shows the lens.

But the one thing that made the Disc 8000 the “…’de-luxe’ model of the range…” (Koning) is the built-in clock/alarm system.

The funny thing is that this has nothing to do with the camera at all, and is separate, and is even needs its own power source, a lithium coin cell battery. The clock/alarm is a “…just a tiny travel-alarm…” (Ollinger).

The settings on the clock can be found next to the digital time display. On the left is the switch to go between the time (T) and alarm (Bell) when setting the times. Next to that is the alarm on/off switch. Then underneath that is the buttons to set the minutes (m) and hour (h). Then there is a lightbulb symbol, which is, I’m guessing, to light up the digital display.

Then on the back of the cover are instructions on what lens setting to use for specific exposures and settings.

Then when you take off the cover, we find the front of the camera, revealing a beautiful gold bare metal.

First the lens-

The lens is an Aspheric 12.5mm lens with a max f/stop of 2.8. Now to explain what an Aspheric lens is. According to Edmund (2025), it comes from the word asphere, meaning “…surfaces that are not portions of a sphere…” and is a lens used to correct “…spherical aberration, an optical effect which causes incident light rays to focus at different points when forming an image, creating a blur.”

It can achieve this by not having a spherical glass/surface. It has counter-curve edges, which “direct light rays hitting the edges of a lens to converge at the same point of focus as the light rays hitting the center.” One benefit of this lens is that it corrects: “Designers – especially with wide-angle lenses – often have to stop-down their optical systems to exclude the corners so as to avoid an excess of field curvature…” by “…making it possible to shoot at wider apertures and allowing us to use the entire surface of the lens…” (Riggs 2022).

Spherical lens vs. Aspherical lens. Image Source: https://www.meetoptics.com/assets/aspheric-lenses-gc9Y9A5Y.svg

Not only that, but this lens is ideal for the Disc 8000s design of being lightweight, because, according to Riggs (2022): “They also allow manufacturers to create smaller and lighter lenses since they reduce the need for numerous lens elements and lens groups.”

The lens also has two settings. The first is the f/2.8 four element lens (Eckman 2022), with a focal range of 4 feet to infinity.  Then there is the close-up setting/lens (Retroist 2019). This is activated with a slider underneath the lens, which slides a filter/magnifying glass over the lens. This gives the camera a focal range of 1.5-4 feet.

To set the lens back to the normal setting, the user presses the release button next to the slider.

Next to the lens-

Is a slider that switches the different shutter settings. The bottom one is to set the 10 second self-timer, the red light is the self-timer’s indicator (Museums Victoria Collections). Middle is to set the camera to take single shots, one shot at a time and the top setting is to set the camera to “rapid sequence film advance” (Museums Victoria Collections) or in other words it “engages a 3fps autowinder” (Koning), which activates the camera’s “3-shot burst mode” (Retroist 2019).

Speaking of the shutter-

This can be found left of the lens. According to Koning, there are two shutter speeds: 1/100 and 1/200 second. The 200, is presumably the 3-shot mode. The shutter is a rotary disc shutter, which is a “…shutter looks very similar to a fan. In short, the Rotary Disk rotate on the inside of the camera body, exposing the film to light then covering it up again with the blade of the disk. The rotary disk process works in 3 steps: under the cover of the disk the camera film would move into place, the disk would allow light in, and the disk would cover the frame…” (Ward 2015).

Rotary Disc Shutter diagram. Image Source: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRf4zciisBvr1CtldTSO3Ndppqi0x-r773hN9uAfwHNOg1kyLMP

Then above the lens-

Is the viewfinder. What is interesting about the viewfinder, is that when the close-up lens/filter is slid over the lens, this filter also slides over the viewfinder, making this viewfinder more accurate than other cameras.

And next to that is the electronic eye, which activates the auto exposure systems.

 Then on the far left-

Is the flash that is, “…capable of firing every 1.3 seconds, and a sensor that detected when it was needed. So, no more fumbling around to engage the flash in low-light situations, the camera was now making the decisions for you…” (Retroist 2019).

Bottom right-

Is where the golden metallic wrist strap goes, that just adds to the camera’s already extravagance aesthetic.

Then the back-

To open the film compartment, the user must pull out the lever (on top) until the latch opens.

Inside the film compartment is the viewfinder and the turning mechanism, as well as the lock that holds the film disc in place.

Speaking of… This camera uses disc film. According to Gay (2015):

“To support the disc camera’s developmental vision of an easy-to-use, ‘idiot-proof’ camera, Kodak had to produce a better-quality, higher-resolution film to compensate for the small surface area of each frame.110 A small film frame would require an additional magnitude of enlargement for printing, which would result in grainer prints if the film itself was left unchanged. Furthermore, consumers historically had struggled with loading 35mm film and would approach photo shops for assistance with film loading. The disc film was developed to solve both issues; the film was developed to have finer grain than previous color films, 112 allowing for a greater magnitude of enlargement for standard 4x6” prints. The film cartridge that the disc film came in could also simply be inserted into the back of the camera, which only fit one way, further reducing the risk of user error. In addition, the film was automatically advanced by the camera, which again, reduced the likelihood of user error.”

This film was a flat cartage, which had a set of fifteen exposures, each exposure consisting of a 10 x 8mm frame (Retroist 2019). All fifteen exposures were aligned in a circle.

 

Each exposure is 24 degrees apart and because it is flat it “…had the potential for greater sharpness over the bendy spool-based film formats like the 110 camera…” (Retroist 2019). But as mentioned, these small frames where not only hard to scan, because it is a disc, but that when each image was enlarged it came out very grainy and bad.

Example of the inside of a disc film. Image Source:
https://mikeeckman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/KodakDiscAd-2.jpg

Even though the disc cameras were discontinued in 1988, the disc film however only stopped being produced in 1999 (Jaalvarez 2009).

This film also has the same process as the regular 35mm film, C41, so we can assume that it works the same as well. And if you want to learn how film works please see my Kodak 200 plus color post.

Although this camera was a flash in the pan, it is still an important part of history. It proves that Kodak still cared about its main mission to make photography as easy as possible and in my opinion, the Disc 8000, could be the precursor and even the inspiration for SD/memory card cameras.

But the one thing I really like about this camera is its presentation. Not only is it eye catching with its gold colour, and shiny wrist band, and that it has a unique film, but even the box it came in, looked like a display case. Meaning that the box was not just something that took up storage space but gave you a place to put the camera and keep it dust free. At the time everything about this camera screamed you were not just buying a user-friendly camera, you were buying the future!

Kodak Disc 8000 box/display case. Image Source: 
https://coimages.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/245/385/medium_cd0119_004_050708_y1986_445_5_kodak_disc_camera.jpg

And that is it. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did researching it. And thank you for making it to the end.

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List of sources:

Eckman, M. 2022. Keppler’s Vault 103: Kodak Disc Film. https://mikeeckman.com/2022/11/kepplers-vault-103-kodak-disc-film/

Edmund. All About Aspheric Lenses. https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/all-about-aspheric-lenses/?srsltid=AfmBOorAIK_TBNxZbkiiXHeUNoiTuymPrtYQZrBk3vhi8t7JMiA9NKJu

Gay, H. 2015. The Kodak Disc Camera and Disc Film. https://rshare.library.torontomu.ca/articles/thesis/The_Kodak_Disc_Camera_and_Disc_Film/25417456?file=45076513

Jaalvarez. 2009. The KODAK Disc 4000: The Future in the Past! https://www.lomography.com/magazine/21711-the-kodak-disc-4000-the-future-in-the-past

Kamerastore. 2025. Kodak Disc 8000 – Camera. https://kamerastore.com/products/kodak-disc-8000?srsltid=AfmBOopMy-Q7H5nCFdXMPLqLZPspbLyURclN4UJMjj3q1lNjVXQ9jb5v

Kodak. Milestones. https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/milestones/

Koning, M. Kodak Disc 8000. https://kodak.3106.net/index.php?p=205&cam=1109

Morrell, A. 2014. Whatever Happened To ... Kodak disc cameras? https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/05/02/whatever-happened-kodak-disc-cameras/8643517/

Museum Victoria Collections.  Kodak Cameras. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/content/media/10/1106060.pdf

Ollinger, J. Kodak Disc 8000. http://www.jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll/cameras/Kodak_disc8000.html

Our Own Devices. 2025. Disc Cameras: Kodak's Successful Failure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5lHP6TvjzA

Retroist. 2019. The rise and fall of the Kodak Disc Camera. https://www.retroist.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-kodak-disc-camera

Riggs, T. 2022. Understanding the Aspherical Lens in Photography (Asph Lens). https://shotkit.com/aspherical-lens/

Ward, C. 2015. How Do Camera Shutters Work? https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-camera-shutters-work/#:~:text=Instead%20a%20film%20camera%20uses,the%20blade%20of%20the%20disk.