Kodak's been hit hard by the decline in popularity of its traditional film products and has taken to offloading various patents of late in an attempt to return to profitability. Today, it's continuing this drive with the sale of its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) division to private capital firm Platinum Equity.

The Kodak brand might not be the force in photography it once was, but ISS's work is used in a variety of products you might well be familiar with. Leica's premium M9 rangefinder and S2 studio cameras both use Kodak sensors, while the Ikonos satellite used ISS technology when it became the first commercial satellite ever to capture imagery of the Earth at 1-meter resolution in 1999.

So, what does the buyout mean for Kodak, ISS and their customer base? Kodak stressed that it will continue to have access to ISS image sensor technology for use in future products, and that Platinum Equity for its part will bring financial clout and a plan for continued success. While specific details of the deal were not forthcoming, the firm has history here, with past acquisitions of former giants US Robotics and Quark following seemingly similar patterns. It sounds like, at least for now, there shouldn't be much in the way of drastic changes to the way that ISS is run.