Photography: A Brief History

 Camera Obscura Effect

The concept of photography began with idea of Camera Obscura. Aristotle (384-322 BC) had spoken about it as a philosophical idea, but never went on to build one.

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Photography: Brief History PDF

Pinhole Camera

The first photographic equipment was the pinhole camera. It is a simple camera/box/chamber (light=proof box) without a lens but with a tiny aperture/opening. Invented in the 10^th century, by Ibn al-Haitham (Egyptian Scientist). Here the Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect.

Camera Obscura

A pinhole camera with a lens for its tiny opening. Artists used it to get the shape and proportion of images right. Scientists kept discovering and using better optics and lenses to manipulate the image. Images kept improving, but not able to retain images permanently.   

First Recorded, and Surviving Photograph

The First Photograph

The first recorded Heliograph (photograph) was by Nicéphore Niépce (1826), France. The exposure took about 8 hours. He used a chemically coated metal plate to capture and retain the image. In 1833, Louis Daguerre also used a metal plate but with reduced exposure time, called, the Daguerreotype. It took about half an hour for exposure. It was William Fox Talbot who first used translucent negative for capturing and retaining the image in 1835, and in 1841 he got it patented. It was called Talbotype/Calotype. It first produced the camera negative, and from it a positive image could subsequently be printed, and make many copies. Talbot’s negative-positive process dominated photography up to the digital age.

In 1888, Kodak commercial cameras came in market, with dry, transparent, flexible photographic film that came in a roll. It was invented by invented by George Eastman. Polaroid Instant Image Camera made its appearance in 1848. It was discovered by Edwin H. Land.

Modern SLR Cameras

Single-lens reflex camera (SLR) began with the use of a reflex mirror in a camera obscura but it took a long time for the design to succeed for photographic cameras. In mid 19^th century onwards there serious attempts. Some succeeded but were very complex in practice. By 1960s the SLR camera became the preferred design for high-end cameras. Eastman Kodak Company made the first Digital Camera in 1970s. Steven Sasson was the engineer behind. The Nikon QV-1000C was the first commercial DSLR camera, introduced in 1988. Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 was  the first mirrorless camera, introduced in 2008. Now all brands have DSLR and DSLM cameras; and every professional photographers use them.