Most people use smartphones as cameras, so it is perhaps no surprise that Kodak has hatched a plan to jostle for position in the mobile phone market.

The company, which was bust four years ago, is to launch a phone aimed at photography enthusiasts who want more powerful camera functions.

Kodak released a model in Latin America and Germany last year, but tried a handset based on George Eastman’s mantra — “you press the button, we do the rest” — rather than one devoted to imagery.

It went back to the drawing board and came up with a handset that works almost like a digital single-lens reflex camera. Jeff Clarke, chief executive, said: “It is central to the Kodak brand to have an exceptional camera experience and to not treat it as an afterthought.”

Kodak, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2013, is making a push into the consumer market where it made its name by targeting what Mr Clarke, 54, calls “the analogue renaissance”. The company put out a Super 8 camera earlier this year to appeal to a new generation of consumers who are going back to film to take pictures and believes that a Kodak-branded phone would appeal to them.

There is a British connection because the phone will be made by Bullitt , a Reading-based group that produced the world’s first thermal imaging phone.