A brief history of cameras:
When you think of the “first camera” you will probably think to the 1850s in the Old West or in high society New York City. However, a device that can project images has been around for hundreds of years known as a Camera Obscura. The first mention of such a device dates to the 400BC. But, these devices had some flaws, the image was projected upside-down, they were very large sometimes up to 2 people could fit inside and the image was not permanent unless traced by hand.
The cameras we know today, at least in part (portable and producing permanent image), can actually be traced to an idea of a German man named Johan Zahn in the mid-1680’s. However, his idea was not made a true reality until two Frenchman, Joseph Nicéphore Nipéce and Louis Daguerre invited a device called a Daguerreotype. Niéce did not live long enough to see the invention completed in 1839, which hints as to why it was called a Daguerreotype though, after some 10 years it was Niéce that was able to create the first permanent image in 1826.
In the 1850s Dry Plates became available then in the 1870s Wet Plates took over. By 1888 George Eastman made his first camera called the “Kodak” and founded the Eastman Kodak Company, just one year before he switched to celluloid film from the paper film he had been manufacturing since 1885.
Since the 20th century began photography advancements have been coming so fast it is hard to keep track, especially now that the “Digital Age” is in full swing. Cameras with both picture and video functions can now be found in everything from phones, laptops and cars to spy cams in sunglasses and pocket-pens. While a dedicated camera still FAR out preforms ones used on multifunction devices such as smart phones you still have to consider just how far photographic technology has come, even since the 1990s. Once it was two people in a camera to now two cameras in a pocket sized phone.