History of the Camera Past to Present

Camera Obscura The camera obscura (Latin for 'dark room') was the ancestor of the modern camera. The camera was actually a large room that would be entered by the user. Light entering a small hole in a darkened room produces an inverted image on the opposite wall.

Pinhole Box Camera This was an early version of the camera. It consists of a box with a tiny hole in the front allowing for light to enter and what we now would call film on the opposite side of the inside of the box.

Dagguerreotype Camera The Dagguerreotype was the first commercially used camera. It was created by a french man by the name of Joseph N. Niepce and later finished by Louis J. M. Dagguere

Examples

Next focus was getting film that was smaller, developed more efficiently along with smaller cameras.

Kodak George Eastman invented dry, transparent, and flexible, photographic film (rolled photography film) and the Kodak cameras that could use the new film in 1888. George Eastman, an avid photographer was the founder of the Kodak company. Kodak produced hangheld cameras that held enough film for 100 exposures.

The 35 mm camera As early as 1905, Oskar Barnack had the idea of reducing the format of negatives and then enlarging the photographs after they had been exposed. As development manager at Leica, he was able to put his theory into practice. He took an instrument for taking exposure samples for cinema film and turned it into the world's first 35 mm camera: the 'Ur-Leica'.

35 mm Camera (cont.)

The Polaroid Camera- 1948 Polaroid photography was invented by Edwin Land. Land was the American inventor and physicist whose one-step process for developing and printing photographs created a revolution in photography - instant photography.

The Camcorder In 1980, Sony produces first camcorder. This is a handheld video recorder. Now you not only can take still pictures but also record events.

The Digital Camera Now the digital camera is the most prevalent camera. According to InfoTrends.com digital camera sales soared to 53 million units sold in 2004.

Digital Cameras Digital cameras are used to take still or even short videos and upload them on to the internet. Now people can send pictures across the world by email for personal use, companies use digital photos in their ad campaigns amongst other uses for digital pictures.

Imagine a little less than a century and a half ago you would take one picture for the year and today pictures are everywhere. It is so accessible that we take pictures even when there’s no special occasion, just when we feel like it.

History of the Camera I believe that’s a defining technology!