Who Invented the First Camera

Camera has become such a common device these days, that it is more likely to find a camera in a person's pocket than finding a wallet! The concept of being able to capture a moment forever, has captured everyone's imagination. But the story of invention of this extraordinary device is full of events and starts from the era of Aristotle, who is said to have known the concept of a camera, but there's no documented proof. Neither is it possible to pinpoint the exact time when the first camera was made, nor is it possible to call any one person its inventor. But a mention of the word 'camera' makes us curious to know who invented it.

History of the First Camera

To know about the person behind this awesome invention, we may think that we have to rewind to not more than 200 years. But in fact, to know the complete story we need to go back a thousand years!

In the year 1021, an Iraqi Arab scientist Ibn al-Haytham wrote Book of Optics (original Arabic name: Kitāb al-Manāẓir), a seven volumed book, where the basic concept of a camera first appeared. It iterated the usage of a pinhole or lens to focus an image onto a screening surface.

These earliest cameras were huge in size with space for a person to sit inside. The first small camera which could be held by hand, was designed by Johann Zahn in 1685, but it took many more years for this design to prove successful.

The year 1814 is said to be the landmark year in the history of the camera. The first photograph was taken that year by Joseph Nicephore Niepce using a sliding wooden box camera by exposing bitumen coated pewter plate to light. Thus, Niépce is considered to be the one who created the first camera. Based on his principle, Frenchmen Charles and Vincent Chevalier built the first camera that could produce photos. These earliest cameras did not have a mechanism to preserve images as the screen on which the image was projected could not save the image permanently on it. The only option was to manually trace them.

In 1836, Louis Jacques Daguerre, who was Niépce's partner, introduced the first practical photographic method. This method was called daguerreotype and it was devised after the death of Niépce. Daguerre used a silver coated copper plate and used iodine vapor to treat it which made it sensitive to light. While developing the image, mercury vapor and salt solution was used.

In 1840, William Talbot for the first time, generated positive images from negatives to produce permanent images. After this, rapid development in the camera technology and continuous contribution by individuals all over the world further propelled research to develop more sophisticated cameras. Most of the things are too technical to talk about here. Moreover, it has been a long process of development.

The year 1888 proved to be another important turning point in the history of the camera. George Eastman, who started manufacturing paper films in 1885, made his first camera which he called 'Kodak'. This was the first camera to go on sale. Just a year later, he replaced the paper film with celluloid and his camera took a form, which was close to modern-day still cameras (i.e. those which use a film). It was the simplest form of a box shaped camera with a single speed shutter mechanism. By the end of the 19th century, Eastman had introduced an expanded lineup and started the commercialization of cameras. Many other brands soon entered the camera market and numerous new discoveries were made in still photography technology.

The year 1948 saw the introduction of instant Polaroid cameras in the market. The Polaroid model 95 was the world's first instant picture camera. These cameras used a chemical process to develop positive images from exposed negatives within a minute.

More than 75 years after pioneering the analog filmed camera, the Eastman Kodak company was the talk of the town again. After several less successful attempts of digitizing the camera by many others, Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak succeeded in building the very first digital camera in 1975. The camera weighed a mammoth 3.6 kg and produced only black and white images at a meager resolution of 0.01 megapixels! It took a tedious 23 seconds to successfully capture one image. Since then, digital cameras have never looked back, and today they have almost completely phased out the analog film loaded still cameras.

This is where we come to today's era and the speed at which the cameras are surging ahead in terms of technology is astounding. Today, we can clearly capture an image of a car registration number from a satellite camera orbiting a couple of thousand miles above the earth's surface. On the other hand, cameras are being incorporated in sizes as small as a shirt's button!

Having heard the entire story of this wonderful device, we have got the answer we came looking for, haven't we? Although, there's not a single name to be credited, George Eastman - The Kodak Man is credited with the invention of camera as he's said to have encapsulated the concept of photography into a device, which was not achieved by anyone before him.