CAMERA

The first permanent photograph of a camera image was made in 1825 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. 

A camera is an optical instrument that captures a visual image. At a basic level, cameras consist of sealed boxes, with a small hole that allows light through to capture an image on a light-sensitive surface. Cameras have various mechanisms to control how the light falls onto the light-sensitive surface. Lenses focus the light entering the camera. The aperture can be narrowed or widened. A shutter mechanism determines the amount of time the photosensitive surface is exposed to light.

History of the camera

The forerunner to the photographic camera was the camera obscura. Camera obscurais the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or for instance a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen and forms an inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. The oldest known record of this principle is a description by Han Chinese philosopher Mozi (c. 470 to c. 391 BC). Mozi correctly asserted that the camera obscura image is inverted because light travels in straight lines from its source. In the 11th century, Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) wrote very influential books about optics, including experiments with light through a small opening in a darkened room.

Even though more than 80% of Americans already own smartphones, it’s easy to overlook that millions of us have a stunningly elevated camera or two in our pockets. Cameras are so quick and easy to use that anybody can take a photo, edit it, and share it with the rest of the world in minutes. Technology has become so pervasive that many people can’t fathom their lives without photography in the twenty-first century.

When Was The First Camera Invented?

Camera obscura, meaning “darkroom” or “dark chamber” in Latin, was the first camera ever created. It wasn’t a camera as we know it now, but relatively little gloomy rooms with light entering only through a small hole. As a result, the adjacent wall was cast with an inverted picture of the outside scene.

Who Invented The First Camera?

Although it is unclear who originated the camera obscura, the oldest known written recordings of this idea are by Han Chinese scholar Mozi (c. 470 to c. 391 BC).

In the fourth century, Aristotle observed that sunlight traveling through spaces between leaves projects a picture of an overshadowed sun on the ground. The Greek architect Anthemius of Tralles, who utilized a form of camera obscura in his experiments in the 6th century, was aware of this occurrence.

Al-Kindi, a brilliant Arab scholar, mathematician, healer, and musician, worked with light and a pinhole in the ninth century.

In the 11th century, an Arab physicist named Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) published optics books that featured light tests through a tiny hole in a darkened chamber (aka camera obscura). Hence, many regard him to be the legitimate inventor.

Leonardo da Vinci even wrote about it, writing the first clear explanation of the camera obscura in his Codex Atlanticus. He also sketched roughly 270 illustrations of camera obscura systems in his art books over the years and linked them to the human eye.