The US company that invented the hand-held camera, Eastman Kodak, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
The 133-year-old firm brought photography to the masses more than a century ago but analysts say it was too slow to embrace the change to more modern technology such as the digital camera - a product it invented.
The move to file for Chapter 11 gives the company time to reorganise itself without facing its creditors, and Kodak said that it would mean business as normal for customers, the BBC reports.
The company said it had already arranged a $US950m credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.
Eastman Kodak's non-US subsidiaries were not included in the move and would continue to operate as usual, it said.
Kodak once employed more than 60,000 people in its hometown of Rochester in New York State alone, but its entire workforce now numbers some 17,000 people.
