CAMERA TIMELINE

1727The discovery that silver nitrate changes:

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

1814The 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.

1837The 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.

1841Making multiple copies possible: 

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

1851Taking pictures gets easier:

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

1871Film 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.

1888The invention of the roll-film camera:

George Eastman invented the first roll-film camera. 

1948The Polaroid camera is marketed:

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

1963Colored film is introduced 

Polaroid came out with the first colored film.

1974The first digital camera is developed 

The Sasson Company built the first digital camera.

1980The first consumer camcorder is released:

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

1984The first digital camera is marketed:

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

1990The first camera phones (1990's):

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

2001The 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.

2012Wireless 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.