The Camera Timeline

1727-The discovery that silver nitrate changes 

Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that a substance called silver nitrate would change colour when exposed to light. This paved the way for the first pictures to be taken and processed.

1814- The camera obsucra is developed

Joseph Niepce developed the camera obscura and took the first photo with it. It wasn't ideal, though, because it took 8 hours of light exposure to make a picture, and the picture faded with time.

1837- The Daguerreotype was invented

Louis Daguerre invented a new way to take pictures. It only needed 30 minutes of light exposure, and the image didn't fade with time.

1841- Making multiple copies as possible

William Henry Talbot developed the Calotype process. This made it possible to make multiple copies of the same picture

1851- Taking pictures gets easier

With the new Collodion process, cameras only needed a few seconds of light exposure to make a picture.

1871- Film easier to handle.

Up until this time pictures had to be developed immediately after being taken. Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process, which made it possible to take a picture and develop it later.

1888- Invention of the roll-film camera

George Eastman invented the first roll-film camera.

1948- Polaroid camera

The Polaroid was invented by Edwin H. Land, it allowed people to take a photo and have it developed immediately, right from the camera.

1963- Colour Polaroid

Polaroid came out with the first colored film.

1974- First digital camera developed

The Sasson Company built the first digital camera.

1974- First Digital camera is marketed

Canon put out the first digital camera for the public, which was later improved by Pixar.

1980- First camcorder released

Sony put out the first consumer camcorder, allowing people to record their memories in real time.

1990- First camera phones

The camera phone technology was first used in Japan, but it quickly spread around the world.

2001- Easy share camera

Kodak put out their Easy Share digital camera, which made it easy to snap pictures and download them to the computer.

2012- Wireless cameras are developed

Kodak put out cameras that didn't have to be connected to a computer in order to download and share the pictures.