I could actually see some use to that sort of alliance, however unlikely.
Kodak has had a history of doing good things, getting big eyes, then just as they're putting their best foot forward, stapling it to the ground with something proprietary that kills the whole deal. That whole '35mm film is so successful, let's try and make it obsolete with some stupid 'Advanced Photo System' format we could as easily do with what we got already!'
) And they just keep doing it. All the way on back through what, the 'disc' format, the disastrous running cannonball they took at instant photography, the 620 film spool, (Why?
)
They jump into computers and even a sorely-needed marketshare for user-friendly photo-making interfaces, and still kind of have a 'glory days' mindset like they're about to control the market and can push whatever incompatibilities or shortcomings they like.
Kind of the right idea, (Ok, let's make family snaps easy to print, cheaper, and more durable,) ...in the process they messed up the implementation, maybe never made it quite *right,* you know?
You know, instead of selling the name Schneider to Samsung to put on a Pentax lens, they ought to make a Schneider lens that'll mean something you can put on your Pentax.
And, yeah, *sure,* partner to make a film camera to go with. It's not a huge market, but it's a deciding one for a lot of people.
I do think it's about time we had an American camera industry again, though. It's just the kind of 'high tech jobs' we keep saying we're looking for.
I can hold in my hand a Kodak Signet 35. From the mid-Fifties. Originally-designed for the military, it's practically bomb-proof, has a serious Ektar 44 on there, a wonderful if teeny combined view/rangefinder, probably cost about K20D money in period dollars, and ...still works. The only obsolete thing about the little guy is the ...proprietary exposure calculator slides on the back which refers to Kodak films they haven't made in fourty or fifty years at those speeds, instead of an ASA(that's ISO to digital folks)/DIN rating.