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Today, cameras have become so popular that there may be hardly any person
without a camera. We all carry cameras in our smartphones that are always
ready to take shots when we want. You are lucky that you are living in a time
where we all carry cameras for photography.

Photography, as you know it today, was not cheap and common in the past
century. Because cameras were not available in shape as we know it today.

Early cameras took hours to take a picture, which means you don’t have to
move for hours! It may look strange but it is true. These cameras were only
useful for taking pictures of buildings or natural scenes.

Pinhole Camera – First Working Camera

Working of the Pinhole Camera

History of the camera goes back to the 11th century; a time known as the golden
period of Muslims. During that period, a Muslim Arab scientist Ibn Al-Haytham –
who was an expert in optics – invented the camera known as the Pinhole
camera or camera obscura.
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Pinhole camera was made of a wooden box that was dark from inside. This box
had a small hole in it at the center of one side. When light passed through the
hole it formed an inverted image inside the box. This invention was a major
breakthrough in understanding how light works and form an image.

The pinhole camera was a brilliant invention and was used to form an image of
the solar eclipse. This camera had only shown images when light passed
through it, but it was unable to preserve the images – like we do today.

Image Preserving Camera

 Nicephore-Niepce Camera

Camera Obscura was used by artists for tracing the shape of an image formed
inside the box. Because artists were unable to preserve the image.

The solution to the preservation of images came when Nicephore Niepce

developed a paper that was sensitive to light. This sensitive paper was coated
with silver chloride. When the light was directed towards the paper, it turned
dark. Mr. Niepce found this discovery useful in photography. So, he performed
an experiment by placing the paper inside the camera obscura where the image
is formed. When he allowed the light to enter from the hole, an image started to
form.

So, how an image formed on the sensitive paper that turned dark when
exposed to light?

When an image is formed inside camera obscura, there are a bright light and
low lights. The bright light regions turned the paper darker than low light region.
This way the image was formed.
Mr. Niepce formed the world’s first photograph that was made using the light in
the year 1827. This photographs took about 8 hours to form on the paper. But
there was still a problem in the photograph, it was not permanent. The
photograph turned dark over time due to light sensitivity.

Permanent Photograph – A Major

Breakthrough

Daguerreotype Camera

Nicephore Niepce after the development of sensitive paper started to improve

it so that image can be preserved for a long time. During his development, he
partnered with Mr. Louis Daguerre. They both worked to somehow preserve
image permanently. But during their journey to development, Mr. Niepce died in
1833. Then, the work of permanent photographs was continued Mr. Daguerre
along with the son of Mr. Niepce.

In the year 1839, Mr. Daguerre found an effective process for photography,
which he named after himself “Daguerreotype”. The images formed with this
process were long lasting and were not affected by light.

Hand-held Cameras

Early Handheld Camera

Daguerreotype photography revolutionized the field of photography.

Photography started to emerge New York City that used daguerreotype
photography method.

The daguerreotype photography could only be taken inside studios because

cameras were huge and took-up whole room. Also, the time for taking the
photographs was still long.

The solution came after the invention of dry plates; a glass plate coated with
dried gelatin emulsion. Dry plates reduced the time of image formation and the
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size of the camera. As a result, photographers were no longer limited to studios.
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Cameras with Flexible Roll Films

Camera with its flexible roll film

The development of handheld cameras due to dry plates allowed

photographers to take photographs anywhere. But, dry plates were thick and
heavy, so it was still difficult for common people to buy a camera and take
photographs.

The issue was solved by Mr. George Eastman. He developed flexible roll film for
making negatives of the images in his camera named as “Kodak”. The flexible
roll films made the camera very compact and easy to carry.

Digital Camera – Modern Cameras

 Digital Camera

Cameras with flexible roll film became very popular and were used for a long
time. Then, the development of the camera further progressed and another
revolutionary invention came to the digital camera. The digital cameras
emerged when digital technology has sufficiently progressed.

The first true digital camera was made in 1988 and was called Fuji DS-1P. It had
2 MB SRAM for storing a digital image until the image was transferred to a
computer. Despite being a successful digital camera, this model never went
commercially. The first commercially available digital camera was DS-X by Fuji
and was sold at the end of 1988.

Cite this Page

Abdul Wahab, "Camera," in Science4Fun, October 16, 2019,

http://science4fun.info/invention-of-camera/.

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