History of Photography Timeline

by Philip Greenspun
ancient times: Camera obscuras used to form images on walls in darkened rooms; i
mage formation via a pinhole
16th century: Brightness and clarity of camera obscuras improved by enlarging th
e hole inserting a telescope lens
17th century: Camera obscuras in frequent use by artists and made portable in th
e form of sedan chairs
1727: Professor J. Schulze mixes chalk, nitric acid, and silver in a flask; noti
ces darkening on side of flask exposed to sunlight. Accidental creation of the f
irst photo-sensitive compound.
1800: Thomas Wedgwood makes "sun pictures" by placing opaque objects on leather
treated with silver nitrate; resulting images deteriorated rapidly, however, if
displayed under light stronger than from candles.
1816: Nicéphore Niépce combines the camera obscura with photosensitive paper
1826: Niépce creates a permanent image
1834: Henry Fox Talbot creates permanent (negative) images using paper soaked in
silver chloride and fixed with a salt solution. Talbot created positive images
by contact printing onto another sheet of paper.
1837: Louis Daguerre creates images on silver-plated copper, coated with silver
iodide and "developed" with warmed mercury; Daguerre is awarded a state pension
by the French government in exchange for publication of methods and the rights b
y other French citizens to use the Daguerreotype process.
1841: Talbot patents his process under the name "calotype".
1851: Frederick Scott Archer, a sculptor in London, improves photographic resolu
tion by spreading a mixture of collodion (nitrated cotton dissolved in ether and
alcoohol) and chemicals on sheets of glass. Wet plate collodion photography was
much cheaper than daguerreotypes, the negative/positive process permitted unlim
ited reproductions, and the process was published but not patented.
1853: Nadar (Felix Toumachon) opens his portrait studio in Paris
1854: Adolphe Disderi develops carte-de-visite photography in Paris, leading to
worldwide boom in portrait studios for the next decade
1855: Beginning of stereoscopic era
1855-57: Direct positive images on glass (ambrotypes) and metal (tintypes or fer
rotypes) popular in the US.
1861: Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell demonstrates a color photography sy
stem involving three black and white photographs, each taken through a red, gree
n, or blue filter. The photos were turned into lantern slides and projected in r
egistration with the same color filters. This is the "color separation" method.
1861-65: Mathew Brady and staff (mostly staff) covers the American Civil War, ex
posing 7000 negatives
1868: Ducas de Hauron publishes a book proposing a variety of methods for color
photography.
1870: Center of period in which the US Congress sent photographers out to the We
st. The most famous images were taken by William Jackson and Tim O'Sullivan.
1871: Richard Leach Maddox, an English doctor, proposes the use of an emulsion o
f gelatin and silver bromide on a glass plate, the "dry plate" process.
1877: Eadweard Muybridge, born in England as Edward Muggridge, settles "do a hor
se's four hooves ever leave the ground at once" bet among rich San Franciscans b
y time-sequenced photography of Leland Stanford's horse.
1878: Dry plates being manufactured commercially.
1880: George Eastman, age 24, sets up Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, Ne
w York. First half-tone photograph appears in a daily newspaper, the New York Gr
aphic.
1888: First Kodak camera, containing a 20-foot roll of paper, enough for 100 2.5
-inch diameter circular pictures.
1889: Improved Kodak camera with roll of film instead of paper
1890: Jacob Riis publishes How the Other Half Lives, images of tenament life in
New york City
1900: Kodak Brownie box roll-film camera introduced.
1902: Alfred Stieglitz organizes "Photo Secessionist" show in New York City
1906: Availability of panchromatic black and white film and therefore high quali
ty color separation color photography. J.P. Morgan finances Edward Curtis to doc
ument the traditional culture of the North American Indian.
1907: First commercial color film, the Autochrome plates, manufactured by Lumier
e brothers in France
1909: Lewis Hine hired by US National Child Labor Committee to photograph childr
en working mills.
1914: Oscar Barnack, employed by German microscope manufacturer Leitz, develops
camera using the modern 24x36mm frame and sprocketed 35mm movie film.
1917: Nippon Kogaku K.K., which will eventually become Nikon, established in Tok
yo.
1921: Man Ray begins making photograms ("rayographs") by placing objects on phot
ographic paper and exposing the shadow cast by a distant light bulb; Eugegrave;n
e Atget, aged 64, assigned to photograph the brothels of Paris
1924: Leitz markets a derivative of Barnack's camera commercially as the "Leica"
, the first high quality 35mm camera.
1925: André Kertész moves from his native Hungary to Paris, where he begins an 11-ye
ar project photographing street life
1928: Albert Renger-Patzsch publishes The World is Beautiful, close-ups emphasiz
ing the form of natural and man-made objects; Rollei introduces the Rolleiflex t
win-lens reflex producing a 6x6 cm image on rollfilm.; Karl Blossfeldt publishes
Art Forms in Nature
1931: Development of strobe photography by Harold ("Doc") Edgerton at MIT
1932: Inception of Technicolor for movies, where three black and white negatives
were made in the same camera under different filters; Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunni
ngham, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston, et al, form Group f/64 dedicated to "str
aight photographic thought and production".; Henri Cartier-Bresson buys a Leica
and begins a 60-year career photographing people; On March 14, George Eastman, a
ged 77, writes suicide note--"My work is done. Why wait?"--and shoots himself.
1933: Brassaï publishes Paris de nuit
1934: Fuji Photo Film founded. By 1938, Fuji is making cameras and lenses in add
ition to film.
1935: Farm Security Administration hires Roy Stryker to run a historical section
. Stryker would hire Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, et al. to p
hotograph rural hardships over the next six years. Roman Vishniac begins his pro
ject of the soon-to-be-killed-by-their-neighbors Jews of Central and Eastern Eur
ope.
1936: Development of Kodachrome, the first color multi-layered color film; devel
opment of Exakta, pioneering 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera
World War II:
Development of multi-layer color negative films
Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Carl Mydans, and W. Eugene Smith cover the w
ar for LIFE magazine
1947: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and David Seymour start the photograph
er-owned Magnum picture agency
1948: Hasselblad in Sweden offers its first medium-format SLR for commercial sal
e; Pentax in Japan introduces the automatic diaphragm; Polaroid sells instant bl
ack and white film
1949: East German Zeiss develops the Contax S, first SLR with an unreversed imag
e in a pentaprism viewfinder
1955: Edward Steichen curates Family of Man exhibit at New York's Museum of Mode
rn Art
1959: Nikon F introduced.
1960: Garry Winogrand begins photographing women on the streets of New York City
.
1963: First color instant film developed by Polaroid; Instamatic released by Kod
ak; first purpose-built underwater introduced, the Nikonos
1970: William Wegman begins photographing his Weimaraner, Man Ray.
1972: 110-format cameras introduced by Kodak with a 13x17mm frame
1973: C-41 color negative process introduced, replacing C-22
1975: Nicholas Nixon takes his first annual photograph of his wife and her siste
rs: "The Brown Sisters"; Steve Sasson at Kodak builds the first working CCD-base
d digital still camera
1976: First solo show of color photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, William
Eggleston's Guide
1977: Cindy Sherman begins work on Untitled Film Stills, completed in 1980; Jan
Groover begins exploring kitchen utensils
1978: Hiroshi Sugimoto begins work on seascapes.
1980: Elsa Dorfman begins making portraits with the 20x24" Polaroid.
1982: Sony demonstrates Mavica "still video" camera
1983: Kodak introduces disk camera, using an 8x11mm frame (the same as in the Mi
nox spy camera)
1985: Minolta markets the world's first autofocus SLR system (called "Maxxum" in
the US); In the American West by Richard Avedon
1988: Sally Mann begins publishing nude photos of her children
1987: The popular Canon EOS system introduced, with new all-electronic lens moun
t
1990: Adobe Photoshop released.
1991: Kodak DCS-100, first digital SLR, a modified Nikon F3
1992: Kodak introduces PhotoCD
1993: Founding of photo.net (this Web site), an early Internet online community;
Sebastiao Salgado publishes Workers; Mary Ellen Mark publishes book documenting
life in an Indian circus.
1995: Material World, by Peter Menzel published.
1997: Rob Silvers publishes Photomosaics
1999: Nikon D1 SLR, 2.74 megapixel for $6000, first ground-up DSLR design by a l
eading manufacturer.
2000: Camera phone introduced in Japan by Sharp/J-Phone
2001: Polaroid goes bankrupt
2003: Four-Thirds standard for compact digital SLRs introduced with the Olympus
E-1; Canon Digital Rebel introduced for less than $1000
2004: Kodak ceases production of film cameras
2005: Canon EOS 5D, first consumer-priced full-frame digital SLR, with a 24x36mm
CMOS sensor for $3000; Portraits by Rineke Dijkstra

Timeline of photography technology

The first photograph of a scene, by Niépce, 1826[1]

First photograph including a person, by Daguerre, 1838 or 1839

First color image, Maxwell, 1861
An 1877 color photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photogra
phy. The overlapping yellow, cyan, and red subtractive color elements can clearl
y be seen.
High speed photography, Muybridge, 1878
1822 Nicéphore Niépce takes the first permanent photograph, of an engraving of Pope
Pius VII, using a non-lens contact-printing "heliographic process", but it was d
estroyed later; the earliest surviving example is from 1825.[1]
1826 Nicéphore Niépce takes the first permanent photograph from nature,[1] a landsca
pe that required an eight hour exposure.
1835 William Fox Talbot creates his own photography process.
1839 Louis Daguerre patents the daguerreotype.
1839 William Fox Talbot invented the positive / negative process widely used in
modern photography. He refers to this as photogenic drawing.
1839 John Herschel demonstrates hyposulfite of soda (also known as hypo, or sodi
um thiosulfate) as a fixer, and makes the first glass negative.
1851 Introduction of the collodion process by Frederick Scott Archer.
1854 André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri credited with introduction of the carte de visite (F
rench "visiting card"). Disdéri introduced a rotating camera which could reproduce
eight individually exposed images on a single negative. After printing on album
en paper, the images were cut apart and glued to calling card-sized mounts. Thes
e tiny portraits were left by visiting friends, which inspired the name carte de
visite.
1861 The first color photograph, an additive projected image of a tartan ribbon,
is shown by James Clerk Maxwell.
1868 Louis Ducos du Hauron patents a method of subtractive color photography.
1871 The gelatin emulsion is invented by Richard Maddox.
1876 F. Hurter & V. C. Driffield begin systematic evaluation of sensitivity char
acteristics of photographic emulsions science of sensitometry.
1878 Eadweard Muybridge made a high-speed photographic demonstration of a moving
horse, airborne during a trot, using a trip-wire system.
1887 Celluloid film base introduced.
1888 Kodak n°1 box camera is mass marketed; first easy-to-use camera.
1887 Gabriel Lippmann invents a "method of reproducing colours photographically
based on the phenomenon of interference".
1891 Thomas Edison patents the "kinetoscopic camera" (motion pictures).
1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière Invented the cinématographe.
1898 Kodak introduced their Folding Pocket Kodak.
1900 Kodak introduced their first Brownie.
1901 Kodak introduced the 120 film.
1902 Arthur Korn devises practical phototelegraphy technology (reduction of phot
ographic images to signals that can be transmitted by wire to other locations);
Wire-Photos in wide use in Europe by 1910, and transmitted intercontinentally by
1922.
1907 The Autochrome Lumière is the first color photography process marketed.
1912 Vest Pocket Kodak using 127 film.
1913 Kinemacolor, the first commercial "natural color" system for movies is inve
nted.
1914 Kodak introduced the Autographic film system.
1920s Yasujiro Niwa invented a device for phototelegraphic transmission through
cable and later via radio.
1923 Doc Harold Edgerton invents the xenon flash lamp and strobe photography.
1925 The Leica introduced the 35mm format to still photography.
1932 The first full-color Technicolor movie, Flowers and Trees, is made by Disne
y.
1934 The 135 film cartridge was introduced, making 35mm easy to use.
1936 Introduction by IHAGEE of the Ihagee Kine Exakta 1, the first 35mm. Single
Lens reflex camera.
1936 Development of Kodachrome multi-layered reversal color film.
1937 Agfacolor-Neu reversal color film.
1939 Agfacolor negative-positive color material, the first modern "print" film.
1939 The View-Master stereo viewer is introduced.
1942 Kodacolor, Kodak's first "print" film.
1947 Dennis Gabor invents holography.
1947 Edgerton develops the Rapatronic camera for the U.S. government.
1948 The Hasselblad camera was introduced.
1948 Edwin H. Land introduces the first Polaroid instant image camera.
1952 The 3-D film craze begins.
1954 Leica M Introduced
The first image scanned into a digital computer, 1957
1957 First Asahi Pentax SLR introduced.
1957 First digital image produced on a computer by Russell Kirsch at U.S. Nation
al Bureau of Standards (now known as the National Institute of Standards and Tec
hnology, or NIST). [1]
1959 Nikon F introduced.
1959 AGFA introduces the first fully automatic camera, the Optima.
1963 Kodak introduces the Instamatic.
1964 First Pentax Spotmatic SLR introduced.
1973 Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first large image forming CCD chip; 10
0 rows and 100 columns.
1975 Bryce Bayer of Kodak develops the Bayer filter mosaic pattern for CCD color
image sensors.
1986 Kodak scientists invent the world's first megapixel sensor.
2005 AgfaPhoto files for bankruptcy. Production of Agfa brand consumer films end
s.
2006 Dalsa produces 111 megapixel CCD sensor, the highest resolution at its time
.
2008 Polaroid announces it is discontinuing the production of all instant film p
roducts, citing the rise of digital imaging technology.
2009 - Kodak announces the discontinuance of Kodachrome film.

"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to
draw") The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839.
It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation
, on a sensitive material.
Pinhole Camera
Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages who liv
ed around 1000AD, invented the first pinhole camera, (also called the Camera Obs
cura} and was able to explain why the images were upside down. The first casual
reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible, was observed and
noted by Aristotle around 330 BC, who questioned why the sun could make a circu
lar image when it shined through a square hole.
The First Photograph
On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic ima
ge with a camera obscura. Prior to Niepce people just used the camera obscura fo
r viewing or drawing purposes not for making photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepc
e's heliographs or sun prints as they were called were the prototype for the mod
ern photograph, by letting light draw the picture.
Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen, and then expose
d it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter
areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce plac
ed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image, until then invisible, appea
red. However, Niepce's photograph required eight hours of light exposure to crea
te and after appearing would soon fade away.
Louis Daguerre
Fellow Frenchman, Louis Daguerre was also experimenting to find a way to capture
an image, but it would take him another dozen years before Daguerre was able to
reduce exposure time to less than 30 minutes and keep the image from disappeari
ng afterwards.
The Birth of Modern Photography
Louis Daguerre was the inventor of the first practical process of photography. I
n 1829, he formed a partnership with Joseph Nicephore Niepce to improve the proc
ess Niepce had developed.
In 1839 after several years of experimentation and Niepce's death, Daguerre deve
loped a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after him
self - the daguerreotype.
Daguerre's process 'fixed' the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He p
olished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitiv
e to light. Then, he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes.
After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution o
f silver chloride. This process created a lasting image, one that would not chan
ge if exposed to light.
In 1839, Daguerre and Niepce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the
French government and published a booklet describing the process. The daguerreot
ype gained popularity quickly; by 1850, there were over seventy daguerreotype st
udios in New York City alone.
Negative to Postive Process
The inventor of the first negative from which multiple postive prints were made
was Henry Fox Talbot, an English botanist and mathematician and a contemporary o
f Daguerre.
Talbot sensitized paper to light with a silver salt solution. He then exposed th
e paper to light. The background became black, and the subject was rendered in g
radations of grey. This was a negative image, and from the paper negative, Talbo
t made contact prints, reversing the light and shadows to create a detailed pict
ure. In 1841, he perfected this paper-negative process and called it a calotype,
Greek for beautiful picture.
Tintypes
Tintypes, patented in 1856 by Hamilton Smith, were another medium that heralded
the birth of photography. A thin sheet of iron was used to provide a base for li
ght-sensitive material, yielding a positive image.
Wet Plate Negatives
In 1851, Frederick Scoff Archer, an English sculptor, invented the wet plate neg
ative. Using a viscous solution of collodion, he coated glass with light-sensiti
ve silver salts. Because it was glass and not paper, this wet plate created a mo
re stable and detailed negative.
Photography advanced considerably when sensitized materials could be coated on p
late glass. However, wet plates had to be developed quickly before the emulsion
dried. In the field this meant carrying along a portable darkroom.
Dry Plate Negatives & Hand-held Cameras
In 1879, the dry plate was invented, a glass negative plate with a dried gelatin
emulsion. Dry plates could be stored for a period of time. Photographers no lon
ger needed portable darkrooms and could now hire technicians to develop their ph
otographs. Dry processes absorbed light quickly so rapidly that the hand-held ca
mera was now possible.
Flexible Roll Film
In 1889, George Eastman invented film with a base that was flexible, unbreakable
, and could be rolled. Emulsions coated on a cellulose nitrate film base, such a
s Eastman's, made the mass-produced box camera a reality.
Color Photographs
In the early 1940s, commercially viable color films (except Kodachrome, introduc
ed in 1935) were brought to the market. These films used the modern technology o
f dye-coupled colors in which a chemical process connects the three dye layers t
ogether to create an apparent color image.
Photographic Films
The first flexible roll films, dating to 1889, were made of cellulose nitrate, w
hich is chemically similar to guncotton. A nitrate-based film will deteriorate o
ver time, releasing oxidants and acidic gasses. It is also highly flammable. Spe
cial storage for this film is required.
Nitrate film is historically important because it allowed for the development of
roll films. The first flexible movie films measured 35-mm wide and came in long
rolls on a spool. In the mid-1920s, using this technology, 35-mm roll film was
developed for the camera. By the late 1920s, medium-format roll film was created
. It measured six centimeters wide and had a paper backing making it easy to han
dle in daylight. This led to the development of the twin-lens-reflex camera in 1
929. Nitrate film was produced in sheets (4 x 5-inches) ending the need for frag
ile glass plates.
Triacetate film came later and was more stable, flexible, and fireproof. Most fi
lms produced up to the 1970s were based on this technology. Since the 1960s, pol
yester polymers have been used for gelatin base films. The plastic film base is
far more stable than cellulose and is not a fire hazard.
Today, technology has produced film with T-grain emulsions. These films use ligh
t-sensitive silver halides (grains) that are T-shaped, thus rendering a much fin
er grain pattern. Films like this offer greater detail and higher resolution, me
aning sharper images.
Film Speed (ISO) An arbitrary number placed on film that tells how much light is
needed to expose the film to the correct density. Generally, the lower the ISO
number, the finer grained and slower a film. ISO means International Standards O
rganization. This term replaces the old ASA speed indicator. The slower the film
, the more light is needed to expose it.
Photographic Prints
Traditionally, linen rag papers were used as the base for making photographic pr
ints. Prints on this fiber-base paper coated with a gelatin emulsion are quite s
table when properly processed. Their stability is enhanced if the print is toned
with either sepia (brown tone) or selenium (light, silvery tone).
Paper will dry out and crack under poor archival conditions. Loss of the image c
an also be due to high humidity, but the real enemy of paper is chemical residue
left by photographic fixer. In addition, contaminants in the water used for pro
cessing and washing can cause damage. If a print is not fully washed to remove a
ll traces of fixer, the result will be discoloration and image loss.
Fixer (Hypo) A chemical, sodium thiosulfate, used to remove residual silver halide
s (grain) from films and prints when processing them. Fixer "fixes" the remainin
g silver halides in place on either film or prints. Fixer is also called hypo.
The next innovation in photographic papers was resin-coating, or water-resistant
paper. The idea is to use normal linen fiber-base paper and coat it with a plas
tic (polyethylene) material, making the paper water-resistant. The emulsion is p
laced on a plastic covered base paper. The problem with resin-coated papers is t
hat the image rides on the plastic coating, and is susceptible to fading.
At first color prints were not stable because organic dyes were used to make the
color image. The image would literally disappear from the film or paper base as
the dyes deteriorate. Kodachrome, dating to the first third of the 20th century
, was the first color film to produce prints that could last half a century. Now
, new techniques are creating permanent color prints lasting 200 years or more.
New printing methods using computer-generated digital images and highly stable p
igments, offer permanency for color photographs.
By definition a camera is a lightproof object, with a lens, that captures incomi
ng light and directs the light and resulting image towards film (optical camera)
or the imaging device (digital camera).
All camera technology is based on the law of optics first discovered by Aristotl
e. By the mid-1500s a sketching device for artists, the camera obscura (dark cha
mber) was common. The camera obscura was a lightproof box with a pinhole (later
lens were used) on one side and a translucent screen on the other. This screen w
as used for tracing by the artists of the inverted image transmitted through the
pinhole.
Around 1600, Della Porta reinvented the pinhole camera. Apparently he was the fi
rst European to publish any information on the pinhole camera and is sometimes i
ncorrectly credited with its invention.
Johannes Kepler was the first person to coin the phrase Camera Obscura in 1604,
and in 1609, Kepler further suggested the use of a lens to improve the image pro
jected by a Camera Obscura.
Daguerreotype Cameras
The earliest cameras used in the daguerreotype process were made by opticians an
d instrument makers, or sometimes even by the photographers themselves. The most
popular cameras utilized a sliding-box design. The lens was placed in the front
box. A second, slightly smaller box, slid into the back of the larger box. The
focus was controlled by sliding the rear box forward or backwards. A laterally r
eversed image would be obtained unless the camera was fitted with a mirror or pr
ism to correct this effect. When the sensitized plate was placed in the camera,
the lens cap would be removed to start the exposure.
Box Camera
George Eastman. a dry plate manufacturer from Rochester, New York, invented the
Kodak camera. For $22.00, an amateur could purchase a camera with enough film fo
r 100 shots. After use, it was sent back to the company, which then processed th
e film. The ad slogan read, "You press the button, we do the rest." A year later
, the delicate paper film was changed to a plastic base, so that photographers c
ould do their own processing.
Eastman's first simple camera in 1888 was a wooden, light-tight box with a simpl
e lens and shutter that was factory-filled with film. The photographer pushed a
button to produce a negative. Once the film was used up, the photographer mailed
the camera with the film still in it to the Kodak factory where the film was re
moved from the camera, processed, and printed. The camera was then reloaded with
film and returned.
Flashlight Powder
Blitzlichtpulver or flashlight powder was invented in Germany in 1887 by Adolf M
iethe and Johannes Gaedicke. Lycopodium powder (the waxy spores from club moss)
was used in early flash powder.
Flashbulbs
The first modern photoflash bulb or flashbulb was invented by Austrian, Paul Vie
rkotter. Vierkotter used magnesium-coated wire in an evacuated glass globe. Magn
esium-coated wire was soon replaced by aluminum foil in oxygen. On September 23,
1930, the first commercially available photoflash bulb was patented by German,
Johannes Ostermeier. These flashbulbs were named the Vacublitz. General Electric
made a flashbulb called the Sashalite.
Filters - Frederick Charles Luther Wratten (1840-1926)
English inventor and manufacturer, Frederick Wratten founded one of the first ph
otographic supply businesses, Wratten and Wainwright in 1878. Wratten and Wainwr
ight manufactured and sold collodion glass plates and gelatin dry plates.
In 1878, Wratten invented the "noodling process" of silver-bromide gelatin emuls
ions before washing. In 1906, Wratten with the assistance of Dr. C.E. Kenneth Me
es (E.C.K Mees) invented and produced the first panchromatic plates in England.
Wratten is best known for the photographic filters that he invented and are stil
l named after him - Wratten Filters. Eastman Kodak purchased his company in 1912
.
35mm Cameras
As early as 1905, Oskar Barnack had the idea of reducing the format of film nega
tives and then enlarging the photographs after they had been exposed. As develop
ment manager at Leica, he was able to put his theory into practice. He took an i
nstrument for taking exposure samples for cinema film and turned it into the wor
ld's first 35 mm camera: the 'Ur-Leica'.
Polaroid or Instant Photos
Polaroid photography was invented by Edwin Herbert Land. Land was the American i
nventor and physicist whose one-step process for developing and printing photos
created instant photography. The first Polaroid camera was sold to the public in
November, 1948.
Disposable Camera
Fuji introduced the disposable camera in 1986. We call them disposables but the
people who make these cameras want you to know that they're committed to recycli
ng the parts, a message they've attempted to convey by calling their products "s
ingle-use cameras."
Digital Camera
In 1984, Canon demonstrated first digital electronic still camera.

A Moment in Time
Timeline of photography, film and cameras.
History of Photography - Photo Gallery
An illustrated tour of how photography has advanced through the ages.
The Daguerreotype
After several years of experimentation, Daguerre developed a more convenient and
effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype.
George Eastman - The History of Kodak
George Eastman invented dry, transparent, and flexible, photographic film (rolle
d photography film) and the Kodak cameras that could use the new film in 1888.
35mm Still Camera
The history of the 35mm still camera.
Digital Camera
The history of the digital camera.
Master Photographers
From Abbott to Winogrand, learn about each master photographer and their impact
on the history of photography.
A History of Photography
From its beginnings till the 1920s - significant people, processes, and history.
Still Photography
The science and art of making permanent images on light-sensitive materials.
The Camera Obscura : Aristotle to Zahn
An apparatus in which the images of external objects, formed by a convex lens or
a concave mirror, are thrown on a paper or other white surface placed in the fo
cus of the lens or mirror within a darkened chamber, or box, so that the outline
s may be traced.
Aerial Photography
Andrew Heafitz applied for and received his first U.S. patent for the camera shu
tter.
Photoflash Bulbs
The first modern photoflash bulb (or flashbulb) was made by Austrian Paul Vierko
tter, who used magnesium coated wire in an evacuated glass globe.