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The word photograph comes from the Greek words for light (phos or phot-)
and writing (graphos). Therefore, photograph literally means light
writing, or the recording of light. Photography has come a long way
since its inception.
Camera obscuras were used in ancient times to form images on walls in
darkened rooms via a pinhole.
 In the 16th century, the size of the
hole was enlarged enough to insert a telescopic lens creating brighter
and clearer images.
In 1727, the first photo-sensitive compound was created by accident
when Professor J. Schulze mixed chalk, nitric acid and silver in a
flask. He noticed darkening on the side of the flask exposed to
sunlight.
In the early 1800’s, Thomas Wedgewood made “sun pictures” by placing
items on leather treated with silver nitrate and exposing it to
sunlight. The exposed area would darken leaving a lighter image where
the object had been placed. These images did not last, however, if the
leather was later exposed to light brighter than a candle.
In 1816, Nicéphore Niépce combined the camera obscura with photo
sensitive paper, and by 1826 had created the first permanent images.
Photography was born.
Eight years later, Henry Fox Talbot created the first negatives by
using paper soaked in silver chloride and fixed with a salt solution.
Positives were created by contact printing the negative onto another
sheet of paper.
In 1861, Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell demonstrated a color
photography system involving three black and white photos, each taken
through a red, green, or blue filter.
 The photos were turned into
slides and projected in registration with the same filters.
In 1888, Kodak introduced its first camera. It contained a 20-foot
roll of paper, enough for 100 2½” circular photos. The following year,
Kodak improved its camera by replacing the paper roll with film.
In 1914, Oscar Barnack, of German microscope manufacturer Leitz,
developed a camera using the modern 24x36mm frame and sprocketed 35mm
movie film.
In 1924, Leitz marketed a variation of Barnack’s camera. The “Leica”
became the first high-quality 35mm camera.
In 1936, Kodak developed Kodachrome, the first multi-layered color
film.
 In the same year, Kodak also developed the Exakta, their first
35mm SLR (single-lens reflex) camera. Ihagee (Industrie und
Handels-Gesellschaft) of Dresden, Germany invented the SLR three years
earlier.
(Thanks to Malcolm Stick for that bit of information.)
During the 1960’s, NASA converted images from analog to digital to
send images back to earth. NASA also used computers to enhance images
the space probes were sending.
In 1972, Texas Instruments patented the first “film-less” electronic
camera.
In 1981, Sony released the “Mavica,” the first commercial electronic
camera. Images were recorded onto a mini disc then put into a video
reader that was connected to a TV monitor or color printer. The Mavica,
however, was not a digital camera. It was a video camera that took
video freeze-frames.
In 1985, Milolta introduced the Maxxum, the first autofocus SLR
system.
 In 1986, Kodak invented the first megapixel sensor capable of
producing a 5x7” print.
In 1991, Kodak released the first professional digital camera. It was
a Nikon F-3 camera equipped with Kodak’s 1.3 megapixel sensor.
Today’s digital cameras are quicker, more powerful and can hold more
information. For instance, the Canon EOS-1Ds can produce 11.1
megapixel images. The EOS-1D Mark II can shoot 8.5 frames per second
at 8.2 megapixels. The compact flash cards used in many of today’s
digital cameras can store more than a gigabyte of information. |
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