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The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography
The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before such an application was possible. -
Heinrich Schultz (1724): a silver and chalk mixture darkens under exposure to light.
Heinrich Schultz (1724): a silver and chalk mixture darkens under exposure to light. -
First photograph was made
The first photograph was made in 1814 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph by coating a pewter plate with bitumen and exposing the plate to light in 1814. The bitumen hardened where light struck. The unhardened areas were then dissolved away. The camera has been improved in many ways, and the shape and size has been updated throughout history to fit
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Daguerreotype
Louis Jacques Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (who was Daguerre's partner, but died before their invention was completed) invented the first practical photographic method, which was named the daguerreotype, in 1836. Daguerre coated a copper plate with silver, then treated it with iodine vapour to make it sensitive to light. The image was developed by mercury vapor and fixed with a strong solution of ordinary salt. William Fox Talbot perfected a different process, the calotype, in 1840. Bo -
Collodion dry plates
Collodion dry plates had been available since 1855, thanks to the work of Désiré van Monckhoven. -
Gelatine dry plate
gelatine dry plate in 1871 by Richard Leach Maddox that they rivaled wet plates in speed and quality. -
Hand-held camera
the first time that cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held, or even concealed. -
George Eastman and his first Kodak camera
His first camera, which he called the "Kodak," was first offered for sale in 1888. It was a very simple box camera with a fixed-focus lens and single shutter speed, which along with its relatively low price appealed to the average consumer. The Kodak came pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures and needed to be sent back to the factory for processing and reloading when the roll was finished. By the end of the 19th century Eastman had expanded his lineup to several models including both bo -
Brownie camera
In 1900, Eastman took mass-market photography one step further with the Brownie, a simple and very inexpensive box camera that introduced the concept of the snapshot. The Brownie was extremely popular and various models remained on sale until the 1960s. -
Leica's first 35mm camera
Oskar Barnack built his prototype 35mm camera (Ur-Leica) around 1913, though further development was delayed for several years by World War I -
Leica I camera
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The first practical reflex camera
The first practical reflex camera was the Franke & Heidecke Rolleiflex medium format TLR of 1928. -
A similar revolution in SLR
A similar revolution in SLR design began in 1933 with the introduction of the Ihagee Exakta, a compact SLR which used 127 rollfilm. -
"Sport" camera, the world's first true 35mm SLR
World's first true 35mm SLR was Soviet "Sport" camera, marketed several months before Kine Exakta -
Contaflex Camera
There were also a few 35mm TLRs, the best-known of which was the Contaflex of 1935, but for the most part these met with little success. -
Argus A Camera
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Canon 35mm rangefinder
The fledgling Japanese camera industry began to take off in 1936 with the Canon 35mm rangefinder, an improved version of the 1933 Kwanon prototype. -
The first Western SLR
first Western SLR to use 35mm film, the Kine ExaktaThe 35mm SLR design gained immediate popularity and there was an explosion of new models and innovative features after World War II. -
Kodak and its Retina I camera
Kodak got into the market with the Retina I in 1938, which introduced the 135 cartridge used in all modern 35mm cameras. Although the Retina was comparatively inexpensive, 35mm cameras were still out of reach for most people and rollfilm remained the format of choice for mass-market cameras. -
Argus C3 Camera
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Duflex Camera
The first major post-war SLR innovation was the eye-level viewfinder, which first appeared on the Hungarian Duflex in 1947
The Duflex was also the first SLR with an instant-return mirror, which prevented the viewfinder from being blacked out after each exposure. -
Hasselblad 1600F Camera
This same time period also saw the introduction of the Hasselblad 1600F, which set the standard for medium format SLRs for decades. -
Contax S Camera
Contax S, the first camera to use a pentaprism -
Polaroid Model 95 Camera
Polaroid Model 95, the world's first viable instant-picture camera. Known as a Land Camera after its inventor, Edwin Land, the Model 95 used a patented chemical process to produce finished positive prints from the exposed negatives in under a minute. The Land Camera caught on despite its relatively high price and the Polaroid lineup had expanded to dozens of models by the 1960s. -
Asahiflex Camera, the first JapaneseSLR
In 1952 the Asahi Optical Company (which later became well-known for its Pentax cameras) introduced the first Japanese SLR using 35mm film, the Asahiflex -
Nikon F Camera
Nikon's entry, the Nikon F, had a full line of interchangeable components and accessories and is generally regarded as the first system camera. It was the F, along with the earlier S series of rangefinder cameras, that helped establish Nikon's reputation as a maker of professional-quality equipment. -
Model 20 Swinger Camera, one of the top-selling cameras
The first Polaroid camera aimed at the popular market, the Model 20 Swinger of 1965, was a huge success and remains one of the top-selling cameras of all time. -
Sony Mavica Camera
Handheld electronic cameras, in the sense of a device meant to be carried and used like a handheld film camera, appeared in 1981 with the demonstration of the Sony Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera). -
Canon RC-701 Camera
Analog electronic cameras do not appear to have reached the market until 1986 with the Canon RC-701. -
Fuji DS-1P Camera, the first true digital camera
The first true digital camera that recorded images as a computerized file was likely the Fuji DS-1P of 1988, which recorded to a 16 MB internal memory card that used a battery to keep the data in memory. This camera was never marketed in the United States, and has not been confirmed to have shipped even in Japan. -
JPEG and MPEG standards
The move to digital formats was helped by the formation of the first JPEG and MPEG standards in 1988, which allowed image and video files to be compressed for storage. -
Canon RC-250 Camera
The first analog camera marketed to consumers may have been the Canon RC-250 Xapshot in 1988. A notable analog camera produced the same year was the Nikon QV-1000C, designed as a press camera and not offered for sale to general users, which sold only a few hundred units. It recorded images in greyscale, and the quality in newspaper print was equal to film cameras. In appearance it closely resembled a modern digital single-lens reflex camera. Images were stored on video floppy disks. -
The first commercially available digital camera-Dycam Model 1
The first commercially available digital camera was the 1990 Dycam Model 1; it also sold as the Logitech Fotoman. It used a CCD image sensor, stored pictures digitally, and connected directly to a computer for download.[8][9][10] -
Kodak DCS-100 Camera
In 1991, Kodak brought to market the Kodak DCS-100, the beginning of a long line of professional Kodak DCS SLR cameras that were based in part on film bodies, often Nikons. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor and was priced at $13,000. -
The first consumer camera with a LCD on the back-Casio QV-10
The first consumer camera with a liquid crystal display on the back was the Casio QV-10 in 1995 -
Ricoh RDC-1, the first camera that offered the ability to record videoclips
The first camera that offered the ability to record video clips may have been the Ricoh RDC-1 in 1995. -
The first camera to use CompactFlash-Kodak DC-25
the first camera to use CompactFlash was the Kodak DC-25 in 1996. -
Nikon D1 DSLR Camera
1999 saw the introduction of the Nikon D1, a 2.74 megapixel camera that was the first digital SLR developed entirely by a major manufacturer, and at a cost of under $6,000 at introduction was affordable by professional photographers and high end consumers. This camera also used Nikon F-mount lenses, which meant film photographers could use many of the same lenses they already own.
