when was the camera invented

 

The camera was invented in the early 1800s. In 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce created the first permanent photograph. The photograph was a view from his window that took eight hours to produce and required an exposure time of roughly one hour before the light-sensitive chemicals could work effectively on their photographic plates. The process took so long because his camera used an exposure time of something like 45 seconds without glasses (nearly a minute!). Despite these setbacks, Nicephore’s invention marked photography’s earliest days and inspired several other inventors to experiment with cameras in the coming decades. His discovery not only led to the invention of photography, but also initiated what many consider to be the world’s first photo-essay.

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French photographer Nicéphore Niépce used a camera obscura design to capture his image in 1826 (the earliest permanent photograph), but he struggled with materials and time-consuming exposure times. During this time, Scottish inventor James Anderson was working on a way to create quicker exposures without using paper as a light emitter. In 1836, he filed for a British patent for what he called the “Photographic Apparatus.” The device used negative plates that remained dark while exposing paper and negative film to light. It took about a day for the entire exposure process to occur. Anderson’s “Photographic Apparatus” marked the first successful use of negative plates, which allowed photographers to record images more effectively.

Young French inventor Louis Daguerre took Anderson’s idea and improved upon it in 1839. Working with a colleague, he successfully demonstrated his daguerreotype likeness of Parisian Boulevard du Temple at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences. Soon after, he named his device a “camera” and used it to capture an image of Boulevard du Temple.

Within a few years, photography had improved significantly. In 1851, English photographer Frederick Scott Archer combined the much-improved sensitization process with a light-proof box and a lens. He named his creation a “camera” and stopped using negatives. Within three years, he created the first wet-plate negative of London’s Trafalgar Square.

The first commercial photographic studio opened in New York City in 1854. French photographer Gustave Le Gray used the wet-plate process to produce silhouettes that highlighted details like clothing and facial expressions for clients seeking an intimate portrait experience.

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The first such studio in Great Britain opened just two years later in 1856. The major advantage of the wet-plate process was its portability, which made it ideal for travel. According to one historian, the wet-plate camera “allowed photography to fundamentally change … from a technical feat conducted in the shadows to a mass cultural practice that extended through every aspect of daily life.”

An English photographer named Henry Fox Talbot patented an improved process for producing “spirit-sensitive paper” in 1835. He also used this innovation to produce the world’s first photograph in 1844, five years before Daguerre did so. Without his invention, photography would have been much more difficult to use commercially.

In the early 1860s, Talbot began experimenting with negative-positive photographic paper. He also used his invention to create color photographs and focused on recording representations of nature.

Nikon’s name comes from the “NIkon” trade name that emerged in 1933 when Nippon Kogaku Kogyo (Japan Optical Industries Co.), shortened its name and registered it as a trademark. Since its foundation in 1917, Nippon Kogaku Kogyo had been manufacturing binoculars and microscopes under that name until it was decided that they should be renamed Nikon.