Have you ever wondered about an invention of the first camera? If you did, then you are in the right place. In this article, we will explore the earliest cameras which were developed throughout the centuries.
Modern cameras are small, fast and easy to use, but this was not the case centuries ago when scientists come up with a camera obscura. It will be right to say camera Obscura was the first camera because all the modern cameras evolved from it.
Who was the inventor of the first camera?
There are various sources with fluctuating claims, but most of the scientists agree and give a credit to Arab physicist, Ibn Al-Haytham, for the creation of camera obscura. Al-Haytham published a book in 1021 AD, which is known with the title “Book of Optics”. In that book, he discusses the processes of camera obscura. Camera obscura was way different than cameras we know today. They were huge and they did not take pictures, instead, they projected shades using light.
The first partially successful camera was invented by Nicéphore Niépce in 1816. He developed his camera using a paper coated with silver chloride. The spot on that paper, where a light was exposed, turned black. Almost all of the photos from that camera did not survive to our days, except one.
Below image is only surviving photo from Niepce’s first camera. It is called View from Window at Le Gras. The picture was taken between 1826 and 1827. The photo shows parts of a building and his estate, Le Gras.
After Niepce death, his partner Luis Daguerre developed Daguerreotype camera, which followed by collodion dry plate camera (Désiré van Monckhoven).
The real transition did not happen until George Eastman came up with photographic film. He invented the first film camera, which is called “Kodak”, and it was put into the market in 1988. The camera was pre-loaded with a film that will last for 100 exposures. Each time when a film was needed, these cameras were sent back to the factory for reloading. Eastman started the mass production of these Kodak cameras, and he got very popular by doing so. Especially the camera, known as Brownie, was the huge leap forward in the development of cameras.
Nowadays, film cameras are almost non-usable. Even the older digital cameras are outdated in our highly growing digital era.
