-
Joseph Nicephore Niepce
Made the first photographic image with a camera obscura. A camera obscura is a darkened box with a convex lens for projecting the image of an external object onto a screen inside. -
William Fox Talbot
Produced surable silver chloride camera. -
Louis Daguerre
Publicly introduced his "daguerrotype" process, which produces highly detailed permanent photographs on silver-plated sheets of copper. -
William Fox Talbot
Publicly announced the paper-based process he worked out in 1835, calling it "photogenic drawing". The photographs were not as clear or detailed as the daguerrotype. -
William Fox Talbot
Introduced his patented calotype paper negative process. -
Petzval
Mathematically calculated compound lens of f/3.6 effectively reduces Daguerreotype exposure to 1 minute. -
Scott Archer
Proposes "Collodion" process. Collodion (a solution of nitrocellulose in a mixture of ethyl alcohol and ethyl ether) forms a binder for silver iodide on glass. Exposure and processing is performed immediately after coating plate. Scott Archer did not patent the process and died in poverty. Two versions of this process were "Ambrotype" and "Tintype" . Exposure was about 10 seconds . The Collodion process greatly expanded photography and brought everyone into contact with its results. -
James Clerk Maxwell
Demonstrated the formation of colours by combining three light sources of red, green and blue. All other colours, including white, are a mixture of these primary colours. The colours combine by an additive process. -
Dr. Richard Leach Maddox
Writing in the ‘British Journal Of Photography’ he suggested gelatin, derived from a protein found in animal bones, as a collodion substitute. Gelatin "Emulsions" and "Dry Plates" were marketed by various manufacturing companies from 1878, and gelatin is still used today. Exposure times of 1/25th second could be achieved. -
George Eastman
Produced the first simplified camera system for the general public, The Kodak Number 1, and the first mass Developing and Processing service. -
George Eastman
Produced the first transparent roll film (nitrocellulose) -
Augusta and Louis Lumiere
Patented "Autochrome" the first additive colour screen film material. -
Kodak
Mannes and Godowsky helped develop Kodachrome for home movies, the following year it was introduced in 35mm format. -
Magnum
arguably the most famous photographic agency in the world, was founded in 1947 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and Robert Capa. The agency developed a style of photojournalism that was largely based upon the capability of the Leica 35 mm camera. Magnum is still an exclusive club of illustrious photographers with membership limited to thirty six. -
Dr. Edwin Land
His Polaroid Corporation's research team invented the first instant colour picture material. -
Canon
AE-1 the first 35mm camera with built in microprocessor is introduced -
Minolta
The Minolta 7000 auto-focus 35mm SLR camera was introduced -
APS
Advanced Photo System (APS) is introduced. APS uses a cassette which holds 24 mm wide film on a base which has a magnetic data strip as well as fine grained emulsion. When the film is being developed automatic handling mechanisms locate the correct frames and determines the required print format from the data strip. After processing the film is rewound into the cassette and a digitally mastered index print of all the frames is created as a reference for reordering. -
Sharp and J-Phone
In November 2000 Sharp and J-Phone introduced the first camera-phone in Japan. The J-SH04 is a mobile phone with a built in camera, it uses a 110,000-pixel CMOS image sensor and began the trend for camera-phones. These cameras play an increasingly significant role in photography, for example the main news pictures covering the 7 July 2005 London bombings were taken by the general public on camera-phones and not by professional news crews. However the use of camera-phones can also be abused leadi -
Contax
Contax introduced the NDigital the first SLR digital camera with a CCD the same size as a 35 mm frame. -
Dalsa
Produces a 111 megapixel CCD sensor, the highest resolution at that time. -
Polaroid
Announces it is discontinuing the production of all instant film products, citing the rise of digital imaging technology. -
120 Megapixel Sensor
Canon develops the worls first 120 megapixel sensor. Although it wil not be officially released until 2030, it will allow for the highest quality pixels ever seen. -
17.7 Megapixel
Sony Releases a 17.7 megapixel sensor for cellular devices. This allows for camera quality pictures in cell phones.