Short History of Cameras

• The history of the camera has an extensive background since it can be traced back for centuries. During the 5th Century B.C., Mo Ti of China discovers the principal idea of the camera. He noted “that the reflected light rays of an illuminated object passing through a small dark enclosure result in an inverted but exact image of the object”.

• The types of Cameras that will be covered in this presentation are the Camera Obscuras, Daguerreotypes, Polaroids, film cameras, disposables, and digital cameras.

Camera Obscura

The camera obscura was an optical device, mainly used in drawings, but later it became one of the “ancestral threads leading to the invention of photography”. At first, it was just a box with a hole in one of it’s sides. This allowed for light to pass through the hole and strike a specific part of the back wall. The projection created an exact copy with a correct proportion, which an artist could just copy the image.

The creator of the “Camera Obscura” is not known, but it has been claimed that Ibn al-Haitham invented it in the 10th century. Considering the models weren’t exactly portable because of it’s size, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke developed a smaller version.

Giroux Daguerreotype

• Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre designed the first commercially manufactured camera. It was named the Daguerreotype. It involved the coating of copper plates by mercury vapor. “The resultant plate was sensitized and exposed to produce a mirror like exact reproduction of the scene, usually a portrait.” It produced a single image, but it’s only problem was it was not reproducible. It required exposure times of 20-30 minutes.

Polaroid Corporation • During 1948, Polaroid invented the instant film cameras. It became famous for it’s self-developing film. The earliest Polaroids used instant roll film, but it’s been discontinued. Later on the company developed a “pack film, which requires the photographer to peel apart the film in the developing process.

• The Polaroid corporation continues to sell their products in stores. There has been a modern version of the Polaroid, which is the SX-70. It uses “integral film, in which 10 exposures were packed together in a single enclosure. Each exposure develops automatically once the shot is taken.” Others would be the Polaroid One Step and Polaroid Spectra. Their newest inventions to date would be the I-Zone, “which produces miniature instant prints that are marketed as a novelty toy.”

Film Cameras

• During 1888, Kodak released a camera that was simple to use. It was a wood and leather box that included a 100-explosure roll of film. In order to develop it, the customers would send the camera back to Kodak for processing. • In 1925, Leica invented many different features that are still standard. “Controls and a viewfinder were on top. The lens were focused by turning it, and it could collapse into the camera body for portability.

• During 1959, Nikon released the first widely used 35mm SLR camera. It contained “interchangeable lenses and a reflex mirror that enabled the viewer to see the image coming through the lens.”

• In 1979, Canon produced it’s lines of the Sureshot, which was the first auto focus 35mm camera. “When the button was pushed halfway, a near-infrared beam was reflected off the subject. Sensors gauged the distance and the lens focused automatically”.

Single-use Cameras

• Just like it’s name suggests, disposable cameras are only meant to be used once. It is a simple camera that already has a roll of film installed into it. Some has different functions such as focus free lenses, flash units, and or water proof. “Internally, the cameras uses a 135 film or an APS cartridge.” Some models can be recycled and re-sold once the film cartridge has been removed.

• Kodak and Fujifilm invented the disposable in the mid-1980’s.

Digital Cameras

• In 1995, Kodak introduced the revolutionary digital camera to the general consumers. It changed picture-capturing forever since it “captured an image electronically, without film.” It can be viewed on a small LCD screen, and than discarded or saved for printing. “Initially, a digital camera was characterized by the use of flash memory and USB or FireWire for storage and transfer of still photographs.” The cameras are rated by mega pixels. There are three types of digital cameras such as standard digital cameras, prosumer cameras, and digital single-lens reflex cameras.

• It can be noted that digital cameras has beaten out film cameras in sales.