In today’s smart world, almost everyone has access to a camera. And whether it is to capture memories or solidify incidents, we use a camera without much thought.
All it takes is a simple remove-from-your-pocket-and-click.
But things were not always this easy. It is through the hard work and dedication of great minds that this technology has reached us. But when were cameras created?
We’ll go back in time and delve deeper into the history of the invention of cameras.
When Were Cameras Created?
Let us walk through the journey from the first camera to the modern one, which took centuries.
The Camera That Started It All
Before we talk about cameras, we need to talk about something that came even before them—Camera Obscura.
Camera obscura is an optical phenomenon that occurs naturally when an image is projected on one side of a screen. The image is projected through a small hole, resulting in an inverted image on the opposite wall of the opening.
The word “Obscura” is a Latin word meaning “dark room” or “dark chamber”. And the imagery is projected in a darkened room with a lens or hole drilled on one side.
While artists mainly employed the camera obscura as a drawing aid, it was the first step in a series of modifications and inventions that were to follow.
Mozi, a Han Chinese philosopher who lived from 470 to 391 B.C., recorded this simple phenomenon in his texts. Other texts describe Camera Obscura too, but whether they were independent inventions or if the news had traveled cannot be determined.
Camera Obscura was huge—nearly the size of a room—and could hold one or two people inside. However, as artists started using them more commonly, more and more research went into making them smaller and more portable. Eventually, the size of the camera decreased, adopting the size of tents and boxes.
The First Camera (18th – 19th Century)
So when were cameras created? Johann Zahn was the first person to envision a portable photography camera, way back in 1685. However, no inventor could physically realize his vision for the next 150 years.
However, by the 17th century, scientists had realized that some substances darkened in response to sunlight exposure. More studies were performed to realize the full effect of this weird darkening phenomenon.
In 1727, a German scientist, Johann Heinrich Schulze, published a series of studies that would give a better insight into the phenomenon. He discovered that light and light alone were responsible for substances’ darkening and that other factors like exposure to air or heat were insignificant.
This was the turning point in the history of photography and became the foundation of the first camera.
Carl Wilhelm, a Swedish chemist, achieved the subsequent milestone in 1777. He discovered the high photosensitivity of silver chloride, and the photochemical reaction formed an insoluble product—ammonium solution.
Thomas Wedgwood, the first person to create images, used the above two principles. He coated ceramic pots with silver nitrate and placed insect wings and leaves on them. He then exposed the setup to light and captured an image.
These were great but did not last long—just for a few seconds. Why? Because Wedgwood did not use any fixing agent. But it was still a start.
Fast forward to 1826, and we have our first official photograph. French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the photo. The picture is still preserved and is on exhibit at the University of Texas at Austin.
Niépce captured the photograph using a sliding wooden camera box that was the invention of Vincent and Charles Chevalier. It took 8 hours of exposure to develop it. He termed his discovery ‘heliography’.
Improvising On The Design – Daguerreotypes
To enhance the heliographic process, Niépce corresponded with Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. While Niépce worked on chemicals that would give better contrast, Daguerre worked on the design of Obscura. Sadly, the partnership ended in 1833 when Niépce died.
However, this did not demotivate Daguerre, who continued to work and succeeded in developing a high-contrast image and named it Daguerreotype. However, he was unable to market it.
Eventually, his invention caught the attention of a French politician and scientist, François Arago, who worked alongside Daguerre for the public release of the Daguerreotype.
The Same Time, Somewhere Else
At about the same time, William Henry Fox Talbot, an English scientist, was working on capturing images with the help of silver salts. The news of the Daguerreotype upset him, but he continued working on his dreams.
In 1839, Talbot published ‘Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing’ pamphlet for the Royal Institution. This pamphlet became the first written description of photography.
He kept working and was able to develop a two-step process for developing photographs using negative prints. He called the process calotypes.
Although the calotype was not able to gather as much popularity as the daguerreotype, it marked a significant landmark in the history of photography.
The First Few Cameras
The first commercially produced camera was a Daguerreotype produced by Alphonse Giroux in 1839. It took anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes to form a photograph.
Other manufacturers were quick to follow suit, and in 1841, Charles Chevalier made a camera half the size of the first one and reduced the exposure time to 3 minutes. In the same year, Marc Antoine Gaudin produced a camera with three different-sized holes.
Next, a German scientist named Peter Friedrich Voigtländer created an all-metal camera. It created circular pictures and used the Petzval lens, reducing exposure time by 30 times. It was a portrait lens, replaced in 1889 by the anastigmat lens created by Carl Zeiss.
In 1885, an American entrepreneur, George Eastman invented the first photographic film. He is the name behind Kodak, which was commercialized in 1888.
As the 19th century came to an end, Kodak made a lot of advancements and innovations in a short period. It had started using film, which made way for video cameras and motion pictures.
