Invention of the Camera
In general, technology is something that is more or less limited to the upper working class and the classes above. This is because technology can be expensive. Cameras are one of many devices that cost quite a lot of money, and are not an essential. Thus most people don’t really consider needing to buy one. However, in today’s world, cameras have become so accessible in terms of not only availability but also affordability, because they’re directly attached to mobile phones now! In fact, it is not only smartphones that have attached cameras, but also basic mobile phones which don’t even have a touch screen.
It is amazing to see that in most of the phones available in the market, most laptops, and even attachable cameras for some televisions, there are cameras. It is a great feeling to see accessibility to relatively inexpensive photographs and people being able to find such ways to store their memories. In this way, it leads us the question — how were cameras invented? Surely, it was the result of somebody who wanted a way to store their visual images, right? But painting is a way to do that, and there are thousands of brilliant historical paintings to prove just that. However, maybe someone wanted a faster way to do so, and maybe their curiosity led them to the way they were looking for… or maybe the story of the camera is completely different — let’s find out together.
The camera was not invented as much as it was developed by many different people over the course of its history. Its history is quite similar to that of many devices, where prototypes are made by one person, then further developed into newer versions and models over time, until it leads up to what the device is like in today’s world. Of course, this entire process is the result of the curiosity of all of these minds coming together gradually over years and decades, sometimes even centuries.
A photograph, in the simplest terms, is the result of light falling on a certain surface to create an image in front of us. You may have heard a photographer talk about different kinds of lighting, “good” and even “bad” lighting, etc. This is because taking photos is all about light — the word “photo” refers to light. Knowing this, it would make sense to you that the first ever camera was not made for taking a picture, but for studying optics — to see how we can use light to project it onto a surface which is flat. The earliest way to do this was by using a pinhole camera. This camera uses a pinhole, through which comes an inverted image that is displayed on another screen.
You may confuse a pinhole camera with a camera obscura, which is a mistake. While they are similar, there is one stark difference between them that makes all the change. The pinhole camera consists only of the pinhole, whereas the camera obscura has an additional object inside it — the lens, which reflects the image so you can see it from another opening. While this was first only a way to study optics, in later centuries, following the Renaissance period, a lot of artists began to use the camera obscura to trace art to recreate.
The only problem with the camera obscura was that you could not capture and preserve a photograph by using it. Here’s where Joseph Nicéphore Niépce came in, the Frenchman who was the first to ever try capturing a photograph in the year 1816, rather than merely looking at it. While mostly unsuccessful, it was his curiosity that led him to try and figure out the technology that would store images. Following Niépce were a few others, who tried and failed, but some were successful, too. Thirteen years later, Louis Daguerre created but sold practical photography to the French government, even though it wasn’t practical enough. It was Alexander Wolcott who created the first ever camera whose photos did not fade all that quick, rather they remained in tip-top fashion as they were printed for a while before they faded away.
Over the years, it was different people’s curiosity that paved the way to create more and more technologically advanced cameras. There is so much you can do with your curiosity, just like all the people who, step by step, built the cameras that we use today in our everyday lives. Click here to find out your Curiosity Type using the Curiosity Test.
