How Have Cameras Changed Over the Years?
Across 1,000 years, cameras and camera-related technologies shifted from the camera obscura, or pinhole camera, through cameras that used developmental media to the modern digital camera. The digital revolution, according to Evolution of Digital Cameras, began in the 1960s with the coding of signals into the 1’s and 0’s used by computers. Twenty years later, Kodak pioneered the first digital camera, which has been consistently improved since then.
According to History of Photography and the Camera, Ibn Al-Haytham invented the first pin hole camera in approximately 1000 AD. Later, this became known as a camera obscura and was used by artists in sketching images. Images from the pinhole camera were not preserved because these cameras did not use any kind of light-sensitive media to record these images.
The use of light-sensitive media began in the 19th century, and photographers rapidly explored different ways to create photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepce used bitumen on a plate to allow the sun to engrave the image in his camera obscura. Soon this process was improved by Daguerre, who invented the daguerreotype. Across the next 75 years, cameras changed as a result of the different types of media used.
Cameras moved away from requiring sunlight through the invention first of flash powder and later the flashbulb. Over time, lenses improved and diversified. George Eastman insured that ordinary people could have access to taking pictures through his invention of the Kodak camera, which came complete with film. After the film was used, camera owners mailed back the camera to Kodak and soon received prints and a refilled camera.
