The word photography derives from the Greek words 'photos' - meaning light and 'graphein' - to write. The word was popularized by Sir John Herschel in Modern photography began in the 1820s with the first permanent photographs. Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries. Long before the first photographs were made, Chinese philosopher Mo Ti and Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.E Ibn al- Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1040) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera, Albertus Magnus (1193/ ) discovered silver nitrate, and Georges Fabricius ( ) discovered silver chloride. Daniel Barbaro described a diaphragm in Wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals (photochemical effect) in The novel Giphantie (by the French Tiphaigne de la Roche, ) described what can be interpreted as photography.Giphantie For years images have been projected onto surfaces. According to the Hockney–Falco thesis as argued by artist David Hockney, some artists used the camera obscura and camera lucida to trace scenes as early as the 16th century. However, this theory is heavily disputed by today's contemporary realist artists who are able to create high levels of realism without optical aids. These early cameras did not record an image, but only projected images from an opening in the wall of a darkened room onto a surface, turning the room into a large pinhole camera. The phrase camera obscura literally means dark chamber. While this early prototype of today's modern camera may have had modest usage in its time, it was an important step in the evolution of the invention. May 29, 2007 – What would the world’s oldest camera be worth? The answer: over three-quarters of a million dollars. An 1839 daguerreotype camera was sold for a reported $792,333 at a photography auction house in Austria this weekend, according to the AP. An anonymous online bidder beat out other interested parties from around the globe. The camera, made by the French company Susse Frères, is a singular sliding box camera that professor Wolfgang Haase discovered in an attic in Germany. Experts date the camera back to 1839, making it not only the oldest commercially manufactured camera but now the most expensive camera in the world, according to a statement by the WestLicht auction house Robert Cornelius, self-portrait, Oct. or Nov. 1839, approximate quarter plate daguerreotype. The back reads, "The first light picture ever taken." This self-portrait is the first photographic portrait image of a human ever produced. By 1840, Talbot had invented the collotype process. He coated paper sheets with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image. negative A camera obscura box used for drawing images. On January 7, 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the daguerreotype.[8] The French government bought the patent and immediately made it public domain. In 1832, French-Brazilian painter and inventor Hercules Florence had already created a very similar process, naming it Photographie. By 1840, Talbot had invented the calotype process. He coated paper sheets with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image. Later George Eastman refined Talbot's process, which is the basic technology used by chemical film cameras today. Hippolyte Bayard had also developed a method of photography but delayed announcing it, and so was not recognized as its inventor. History of the Digital Camera By Mary Bellis Digital camera technology is directly related to and evolved from the same technology that recorded television images. In 1951, the first video tape recorder (VTR) captured live images from television cameras by converting the information into electrical impulses (digital) and saving the information onto magnetic tape. Bing Crosby laboratories (the research team funded by Crosby and headed by engineer John Mullin) created the first early VTR and by 1956, VTR technology was perfected (the VR1000 invented by Charles P. Ginsburg and the Ampex Corporation) and in common use by the television industry. Both television/video cameras and digital cameras use a CCD (Charged Coupled Device) to sense light color and intensity. During the 1960s, NASA converted from using analog to digital signals with their space probes to map the surface of the moon (sending digital images back to earth). Computer technology was also advancing at this time and NASA used computers to enhance the images that the space probes were sending. Way back in when Kodachrome color slides and Kodak Instamatics were all the rage -- Kodak researcher Steve Sasson built the first digicam, cobbled together from spare parts and bleeding edge digital technology. The History of Video Tape and Camera Charles Ginsburg led the research team at Ampex Corporation in developing the first practical videotape recorder (VTR). In 1951, the first video tape recorder (VTR) captured live images from television cameras by converting the information into electrical impulses and saving the information onto magnetic tape. Ampex sold the first VTR for $50,000 in 1956.The first VCassetteR or VCR were sold by Sony in video-tape-and-camera/

-- Ed Reep This is the oldest known photograph in the world. It is a photograph of a 17th century Flemish engraving, showing a man leading a horse. It was made by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1825, with an heliography technical process. The Bibliotheque nationale de France bought it 450,000 € in 2002, deeming it as a "national treasure". His photographs were produced on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. Bitumen hardens with exposure to light. The unhardened material may then be washed away and the metal plate polished, rendering a negative image which then may be coated with ink and impressed upon paper, producing a print. Niépce then began experimenting with silver compounds based on a Johann Heinrich Schultz discovery in 1724 that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light. Heliography: The process used bitumen, as a coating on glass or metal, which hardened in relation to exposure to light. When the plate was washed with oil of lavender, only the hardened image area remained. History of Photography A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 1800s. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adams to a retooled ambulance wagon used by Timothy O'Sullivan. From the initial development to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium. Due to the popularity of color photography and complexity of processing colour film (see C-41 process) and printing color photographs and also to the rise, first of Polaroid technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are decreasing in popularity, though are still commonplace on college campuses and in the studios of many professional photographers. Collodion Collodion is a solution of nitrocellulose in acetone or ether that was used as an alternative to albumen to coat glass photographic plates. Commonly used in the production of ambrotypes and tintypes in the 19th century. Albumen Print Prints made on paper coated with a solution of albumen (egg whites) and ammonia salt, which is then sensitized with silver nitrate and printed. Usually toned with chloride of gold. Popular A dark room in a high school, which is part of the school's photography classroom. A portable darkroom in 19th century Ireland. The wet collodion photography process, used at the time, required that the image be developed while the plate was still wet, thus giving rise to portable darkrooms such as this one.Ireland Tintype A process was developed in the mid 19th century for producing photographs on thin sheets of iron. These images are commonly called tintypes, although they are more accurately called ferrotypes. The iron sheet was japanned or blackened, and then coated with liquid collodion and sensitized. After exposure, the plate was developed, fixed, and rinsed. After drying, the plate was varnished to protect the image. The resulting image was positive appearing. Ambrotype The ambrotype process was introduced in the mid 19th century and resulted in the creation of a positive image on a sheet of glass. The glass plate was coated with collodion and dipped in a solution of silver nitrate. The plate was then placed in the camera and exposed. After the plate was developed and fixed, the back of the plate was blackened resulting in a positive appearing image. Like the daguerreotype, ambrotypes were usually placed in protective cases. Albumen Print Albumen prints were made by taking a thin piece of paper and floating it in a bath of egg white and salt, and then coating it with silver nitrate. This light-sensitive paper could then be placed in contact with a glass plate negative and exposed to light to make a positive print. These thin paper prints then were typically trimmed and glued to a card mount for support. Platinum/Palladium Print Platinum: An iron (non-silver) process for making photographic prints in which platinum is reduced from a salt to form the image. Introduced commercially in 1879 as Platinotype, it is a permanent process. Palladium: An iron (non-silver) process for making photographic prints in which palladium is reduced from a salt to form the image. Introduced around 1916 when platinum became very expensive because of WWI. It is a permanent process still practiced widely today. Polaroid Also called "diffusion transfer photographs." These photographs are made from film packets that contain their own developing chemicals. They may be color or black-and-white, and while they are usually prints, they may also be negatives or transparencies. Polaroid introduced the process in