Dating Your Camera: Year Of Manufacture Matters

The history of the camera is a long and fascinating one, stretching back centuries. The first camera, known as the camera obscura, was invented around 400 BC, and used a small hole or lens to project an image onto a wall. Fast forward to the early 1800s, and the first permanent photograph was captured by Joseph Nicephore Niepce using a sliding wooden box camera. This paved the way for the daguerreotype camera, which revolutionised photography with its use of a metal plate process. Roll film cameras made their debut in 1888, offering multiple exposures on a single roll of film. The 20th century saw the introduction of 35mm film, polaroid cameras, and digital cameras. Today, we have smartphone cameras with multiple lenses, video capabilities, and high-resolution imaging.

The first camera

By the middle of the 16th century, lenses were used in the openings of walls or closed window shutters in dark rooms to project images, aiding in drawing. Portable camera obscura devices in tents and boxes became commonly used as drawing tools by the late 17th century. However, the images produced by these early cameras could not be preserved as no photographic processes had been invented yet.

The first permanent photograph of a camera image was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a sliding wooden box camera. Niépce had been experimenting with ways to fix the images of a camera obscura since 1816 and called his process "heliography". The photograph was of the view from his window and was made using an 8-hour exposure on pewter coated with bitumen.

In the 1830s, English scientist William Henry Fox Talbot independently invented a process to capture camera images using silver salts. However, it was Louis Daguerre who introduced the first practical photographic process in 1837, which he named the daguerreotype. This process involved treating a silver-plated sheet of copper with iodine vapour to make its surface sensitive to light. The plate was then exposed to light in a black box for a few seconds, fumed with mercury vapour, chemically treated to become insensitive to light, rinsed, dried, and sealed in a protective glass enclosure. Daguerreotypes produced much better image quality than Niépce's heliography, required less exposure time, and were portable.

The first photographic camera developed for commercial manufacture was a daguerreotype camera built by Alphonse Giroux in 1839. It had an exposure time of 5 to 30 minutes and cost around $7,000 in today's money. This camera is considered the first camera to use plates from the shelf and is thus regarded by many as the first true photographic camera.

The first photograph

Niépce used a process called heliography, which involved exposing a polished pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. The bitumen was hardened in proportion to the amount of light that hit it. The photograph was taken using a camera obscura device, which projected an inverted image of the outside scene onto the opposite surface.

Heliography is considered one of the earliest forms of photography and gets its name from the Greek words for "sun" and "writing" or "drawing". While heliography was a groundbreaking process, it had its limitations, such as requiring very long exposure times.

The first photographic camera

Niépce created photographic images on silver chloride-lined paper, and the oldest extant photograph is one he made around 1826. The original shot is still on exhibit at the University of Texas at Austin. It was made using an 8-hour exposure on pewter coated with bitumen. Niépce called his process "heliography", or "sun writing".

In 1829, Niépce formed a partnership with Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, and the two men worked together to perfect the process and commercialize it. Tragically, Niépce died in 1833 and could not witness the enormous economic success Daguerre achieved by adapting his original design.

Daguerre invented a more efficient camera device. Daguerreotypes were images captured by Daguerre's camera, and his approach defined cameras in the mid-19th century. Daguerreotypes are created by covering a copper plate with silver, sensitizing it with iodine, then exposing it to hot mercury. Henry Fox Talbot's calotype, a daguerreotype variant, was also popular.

The first roll film camera

The Kodak camera revolutionised photography by eliminating the need for cumbersome equipment and complex development processes. Instead of using glass plates, the Kodak camera used roll film, which was easier to load and transport. Each roll of film contained enough material for 100 exposures, and the camera itself was lightweight and portable. After taking 100 pictures, the user would send the entire camera back to Kodak for processing and reloading, a service that cost $10. The camera would be returned with the negatives, mounted prints, and a fresh roll of film.

The Kodak camera's simplicity and accessibility transformed amateur photography into a national craze. Within a decade of its introduction, over 1.5 million roll-film cameras had been sold to amateur photographers. The camera's ease of use and affordable price point ($25 at the time, equivalent to about $690 today) made it a popular choice for capturing everyday moments and memories. The distinctive circular snapshots produced by the original Kodak camera defined a new style of photography that was informal, personal, and fun.

The success of the original Kodak camera led to the development of subsequent models, such as the No.1 Kodak in 1889, which featured a different shutter design and improved viewfinder. The Eastman Dry Plate Company, which created the first Kodak camera, was renamed the Eastman Kodak Company in 1892, reflecting the success and impact of this innovative product.

The first digital camera

Sasson built the camera using a lens and an exposure mechanism from a Kodak XL55 movie camera, Motorola parts, 16 nickel-cadmium batteries, a digital recorder, and a Fairchild CCD electronic sensor. The camera displayed photos on a TV screen.

Although Sasson was granted a US patent for the camera in 1978, Kodak never put it into production. The company felt there was no market for it and prevented Sasson from publicly discussing the camera or showing his prototype outside of Kodak.

Despite Kodak's lack of enthusiasm, Sasson continued to work on digital camera technology. In 1994, he built one of the first commercially available digital cameras, the AP NC2000, in collaboration with Nikon.

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