Evolution of cameras

the beginning, the Pinhole camera

Sep 9, 1500

When Mozi, a Chinese philosopher observed rays of light falling on the walls of a darkened room through a pinhole made on the opposite side, he saw the world outside as upside down. Mozi was fascinated by this fact, and upon proper research he reached the conclusion that since light travels in a straight line, thus such a phenomenon take place in nature. This was the building block for modern cameras and photography.

The Daguerreotype Camera

Nov 10, 1839

in the year 1839 Louis Daguerre, a French artist developed a process to actually store the projected image forever on a shiny mirror finished copper plate treated with chemicals. This was the first time an object was made to be light sensitive to capture information on it and store it forever by treating it with chemicals. Daguerre made the process public in return for a lifetime pension, and this process paved the way for the film cameras that we have used in the past.

The Reise camera

Apr 19, 1900

is a large-format wooden bellows tailboard view camera of almost standardised design, unlike the much lighter and more flexible field camera, but not as cumbersome as the studio camera. A sturdy tripod is always brought along, but it might just as well be placed on a tabletop. It has equally sized rectangular front and back panels on a full-width double-extension baseboard that is hinged near the front.

The Leika I

Jul 20, 1925

You may have heard of 35mm films, the standard format for film photography for decades. Leica I was the first compact camera that packed a superb f/3.5 lens and was able to shoot photos on 35mm films. Modern cameras that we use today started to come into existence at this stage.

Polaroid Model 95

Aug 5, 1947

the process of taking a photo and developing the final taked too much job and time.
A company named Polaroid recognized this problem and decided to compress this whole process into a matter of seconds.
Thus came Polaroid Model 95 onto the market. With this camera photographers could just take a shot and get the photo printed on a special paper supplied by Polaroid itself in minutes.
Well, at this stage, instant photography was a reality and gave a new turn to the evolution of cameras.

Kodak Digital Camera

Dec 14, 1975

ameras have moved from bulky boxes to portable ones, and the lengthy process of developing a photo has been zipped to a few minutes. However, in the year 1975, Steven Sasson of Kodak, developed the world’s first digital camera. It was a modified version of a Nikon SLR, coupled with a digital CCD sensor used to capture light information, and a tape recorder meant for storing the processed photograph.

Fuji QuickSnap

May 28, 1986

Though cameras had evolved a lot in all these years, there was still one thing that was keeping this superb device out of the reach of many around the world – the price. Fujifilm, a film and camera making company completely shattered that barrier by inventing the world’s first single use disposable camera, the Fuji QuickSnap. Each of these cameras were worth only $4, and could capture 27 shots with its inbuilt film supplied by Fujifilm.

Sharp J-SH04

Nov 17, 2000

There was no doubt that cameras were getting smaller, more advanced and even digital as days were passing by, but how compact one could have imagined a camera to be back then? Apparently small enough to fit on a cell phone and take pictures on the go. Sharp introduced a cell phone in the year 2000 which had a tiny camera installed on the back panel and which could shoot, process and display photos on the cell phone display instantly.

GoPro HD HERO

Dec 5, 2008

While everyone else was focusing on creating cameras that were to be used to capture indoor and outdoor moments by regular customers, GoPro was trying to develop something for the people who were more adventurous and were looking forward to capture their adventurous moments. With HD HERO, GoPro introduced a camera that was able to shoot videos at 1080p and could be taken along with you on mountain biking, surfing or any other adventurous sport that you can think of.

Now(Sony Alpha a9 camera)

Jan 1, 2017

This little camera would be attached anywhere and would transmit captured photos wirelessly to nearby devices instantly. Just imagine how cool would that be? It would solve the problem of carrying a bulky DSLR to places, when you could have a coin sized DSLR right inside your pocket. Though there isn’t any official development going on for this idea, let’s hope it becomes a reality. And if it does, this will be a major leap for the photographic industry.