History of the Camera
The history of the camera began with the design of the first pinhole camera
in 1000 C.E and culminated in 1839, when F.W. Herschel took the first picture
and coined the word “photograph”. The pinhole camera, which
presented the image upside down, was “re-invented” by Della
Porta in 1600. The Camera Obscura, whose name derived from Aristotle’s
discourse in which he discussed the effect of sunlight on images, was the
subject of inquiry for years.
The history of the camera began to progress in 1827, when Joseph Nicephone
Niepces spent 8 hours on a summer day making the first fixed image. After
this development came Louis Jacques Monde Daguerre who developed more ways
of capturing images, and his remains in the history of the camera, since
the daguerreotype became the term used for the earliest photographs. Daguerre
was successful enough to make a name for himself in the history of the
camera. However, he was not able to reduce the exposure time to less than
30 minutes.
The first cameras in the history of the camera were huge, cumbersome devices
using flash powder of flashbulbs which were made of magnesium coated wire
and were replaced by foil and oxygen. Many years would pass in the history
of the camera before portable cameras would be invented. Since then, new
and improved cameras are always appearing on the market. The Polaroid instant
camera eliminated the need to wait at the photo mat, and the disposable
cameras became the favorite of tourist and those who simply left their
camera at home. Digital cameras have revolutionized the history of cameras,
because they allow the individual to choose which pictures they wish to
have developed and to print out the photographs themselves. Many critics
of the digital camera complained initially of the picture quality of printouts,
but the technology of digital photographs and printers is improving so
rapidly that criticisms instead become an impetus for change.
