Photogaphy timeline

1727 The discovery that silver nitrate changes

• Johann Heinrich Schulz 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 obscura 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 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 is made 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 The invention of the roll-film camera

• George Eastman invented the first roll-film camera.

1948 The Polaroid camera is marketed

• The Polaroid allowed people to take a photo and have it developed immediately, right from the camera

1963 Coloured film is introduced

• Polaroid came out with the first coloured film

1980 The first consumer camcorder is released

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

1974 The first digital camera is developed

• The Sasson Company built the first digital camera

1984 The first digital camera is marketed

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

1990 The first camera phones (1990's)

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

2001 The Easy Share camera comes into play

• 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.