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.