Journey of Photography: Early Inventions to Digital Era

-Dr. Sunil Kumar Mishra,

Asst. Professor,
VIPS, New Delhi

Photography, an art of capturing images by recording radiations on a sensitive surface by

using camera is one of the popular hobbies of world’s population. In past 200 years, it has
become a great medium of communication. It is people’s best hobby of the world at the
present because of its universal language. When it comes the invention of this beautiful art,
we can definitely say that it was not invented by a single person, or in a single day. Invention
of this art is based on three different phases of inventions in the form of

1. Invention of image forming mechanism (lens or pinhole)

2. Invention of the camera obscura and similar device, into which we can let light
through
3. Invention of light-sensitive material on which we record radiations.

Aristotle is credited to have designed and used an instrument similar to camera obscura at
first time. In the beginning of 19 th century, a lot of experiments were done by scientists
specially based on chemical activity to find light- sensitive material. The major invention of
the period was Silver Halide salts. During this period the darkening of silver nitrate when
exposed to sunlight was recorded as well as noted colour changes of silver salts after
exposure to sunlight. By 1800 a young English Chemist, Thomas Wedgwood has succeeded
in producing images of leaves on leather that he had treated with silver salts. However, he
could find no way to halt the darkening action of light and his leaf images eventually faded
into blackness. In 1814, Charles and Vincent Chevalier got photographic image but it was not
permanent and faded soon. Many other experiments were done in France, Germany, and
England which worked as the foundation of this art. It was not until the early 19th century that
these elements came together to create what we now know as photography. Journey of
photography can be considered with Joseph Nicephore Niepce invention mainly which
directed this art in a true manner. The whole journey of this art can be divided in four major
phases.

1. Early Inventions in the Field of Photography

2. Black & White Era of Photography
 3. Colour Era of Photography
4. Digital Era of Photography

Early Inventions in the Field of Photography- Working in France, Niece Phore

Niepce produced the first permanent image around 1826 using a camera obscura. He made a
direct positive on to a photosensitized plate of lead alloy. The whole process of exposure took
eight hours which was a big drawback of his invention. It is said Niepce was not satisfied
with the image as the lighting was unreal. In the meantime, Louis Jacques Daguerre was
coating metal plates, exposing in the camera and developing with certain salts. In the
beginning, Daguerre could not get success but later on he achieved visible images and
because these were on opaque metal surface, these images were both a negative and positive
image on the same surface, visible into a positive at certain angle of view while giving a
negative impression viewed at different angle. In 1829, Louis Jacques Daguerre invented the
first practical photographic method. He formed the partnership with Niepce on 4 th January,
1829 and improved the process which was developed by Niepce. He reduced the time of
exposure to less than 30 minutes. In 1839, he developed more convenient and effective
method of photography which was known as ‘Daguerreotype’. He coated a copper plate with
silver, then treated it with iodine vapor to make it sensitive to light. The image was developed
by mercury vapor. But one problem remained: The image darkened over the time. Daguerre
solved this final obstacle by washing away silver iodide with a solution of warm water and
table salt. In the meantime, Nipce died in 1833. After Nipce’s death, Daguerre improved his
technique a lot. In the beginning of 1840, French government purchased his technique and
also published the details of this technique in official journal of government.

The word ‘photography was used by sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839 first time. In 1840,
Henry Fox Talbot, a scientist invented the first negative from which multiple positive prints
were made. He achieved to make the first photographic impression on paper. Earlier,
photography was done on freshly prepared plates appropriately called wet plates. In 1841, he
improved his process which was known as ‘Calotype’. In 1849, he prepared glassy type paper
also. In 1854, Scott Archer of London introduced collodion wet plates. The major step came
forward in 1871, when Dr. Richard Maddox discovered a way of using gelatine instead of
glass as a basis for the photographic plate. This led to the development of the dry plate
process. Dry plates could be developed much more quickly than with any previous technique.
Initially it was very insensitive compared with existing processes, but it was refined to the
extent that the idea of factory-made photographic material was now becoming possible. The
introduction of the dry-plate process marked a turning point which improved the time and
quality. Celluloid had been invented in the last stage of this era, and John Carbutt persuaded a
manufacturer to produce very thin celluloid as a backing for sensitive material.

Black & White Era of Photography (1885-1940)-

This era can be dedicated to George Eastman and his company. This was the era, when
camera came out from lab to public use. In 1880, the halftone process was developed which
helped to print a photo in a range of full tones. In 1885, George Eastman figured out how to
process pictures on a roll film. He also introduced his camera ‘Kodak’ with a roll film in
1888. It was a box camera with a fixed focus lens and single shutter speed. After few years,
he introduced ‘Brownie’ a popular model that introduced the concept of the snapshot. In
1898, Kodak company started manufacturing of roll film for commercial purpose. Eastman
Kodak Company was soon established in USA and later on in other parts of the world. In
1920’s, 35 mm roll film was introduced. In the beginning photographic cameras and methods
required long exposures, hence moving objects could not be recorded. The earliest
photographic recordings were architectural and landscape scenes etc. As time passes and
techniques had improved and exposure times were shortened, Portrait photography becomes
fashionable. Since that time, photography has become an important tool in many other fields,
with sophisticated techniques and equipment continuing to evolve.

In 1917, Nikon, a Japanese company was established which manufactured camera lenses for
years. Nikkor, the popular brand name for its lenses introduced in 1932. In 1924 Oskar
Barnack invented the Leica, which was the first 35mm camera. Barnack’s Leica had variable
shutter speeds, variable lens apertures, and the lens focused by means of a rangefinder. The
first practical reflex camera was ‘Rolleiflex’. It was a medium format TLR, introduced in
1928. Twin Lens Reflex cameras were first choice of professional photographer before SLR
cameras. In 1930-40 various model of TLR were introduced. Twin-lens reflex cameras used a
pair of nearly identical lenses, one to form the image and one as a viewfinder. The lenses
were arranged with the viewing lens immediately above the taking lens. The viewing lens
projects an image onto a viewing screen which can be seen from above. Some manufacturers
such as Mamiya also provided a reflex head to attach to the viewing screen to allow the
camera to be held to the eye when in use. The advantage of a TLR was that it could be easily
focussed using the viewing screen and that under most circumstances the view seen in the
viewing screen was identical to that recorded on film. At close distances however, parallax
errors were encountered and some cameras also included an indicator to show what part of
the composition would be excluded. E Leitz & company of Germany produced the popular
range of camera and accessories. In 1934, The Kwanon, Japan’s first 35 mm focal plane-
shutter camera was introduced. In 1947, the company becomes Canon Camera Co., Inc. By
the end of this era, photography was well established profession with a range of Twin Lens
Reflex Cameras. The period during 1930 to perhaps 1950 can be said to be the “Golden
period of camera design”. During this period extreme advancements took place and cameras
of different sizes, forms, designs, mechanisms, handling systems and degrees of compactness
to meet various purposes appeared. Some of these proved very useful and still exist.
However, two major problems were remained same in-front of photographer with the Leica
and similar rangefinder cameras and also with TLRs of this era. The rangefinder worked only
with relatively low-magnification telephoto lenses; and the challenges of parallax error.

Colour Era of Photography-In the early 1940’s, color films were introduced in market.
Color film for various format camera were introduced during this era as 35 mm and 60 mm
camera roll were produced by Kodak company. After second world war, photojournalism
became an important part of journalism. Rolleiflex was the most popular model during
1950’s. Polaroid camera was introduced in 1947 by Dr. Edwin Land of America, which was
used for instant photography. This produced instant black and white prints. Until the mid-
1970s the Polaroid Land cameras used the peel-apart system. This system became outdated
with the introduction of Polaroid SX70 system. Similar systems have been introduced by
Kodak company also. Canon introduced an 8 mm cine-camera ‘Canon 8T’ in 1956. Nikon
introduced its first camera in 1948. Nikon SP, a rangefinder camera was introduced in 1950s.
In 1959, Nikon introduced its single lens reflex camera ‘Nikon F’ in market which was very
popular till 1990 as 35 mm format camera among professionals. In 1954, another Japanese
company ‘Asahi’ started the manufacturing of SLR with focusing ability on specific subject
within frame. Canon introduced their first 35 mm SLR ‘Canon flex’ in 1959. In 1971, Canon
introduced a top-ended SLR camera ‘Canon F-1’ while AE-1 SLR camera was introduced in
1976 by company. In 1987 canon introduced The EOS autofocus SLR camera along with a
range of EF lenses. This era can be remembered for the various design of camera- SLR, TLR,
Rangefinder, Polaroid. In this era, for professional work, SLR cameras from companies like
Nikon, Cannon, Pentax, Minolta, Vivitar, Yashica, Leica, Rollei, Mamiya, Hasselblad, etc.
were introduced with different specifications and capabilities.
Digital Era of Photography- Digital era of photography can be dedicated to two major
companies named ‘Canon’ and ‘Nikon’ as these two companies have contributed the most in
the field of photography. Steaven Sasson, an engineer of Kodak company attributed to invent
first digital camera in 1975 but due to some complications it was not recognised in market. Its
image quality was also very poor. Around the same time Fujifilm began developing CCD
technology in 1970s. In 1981, introduce a film-less camera ‘Mavika’. It couldn’t get
recognition among camera users because of poor image quality. After few months, ‘pro-
mavika’ was launched. Nikon launched its first compact camera ‘L35AF’ in 1983 while
Kodak launched a compact size digital camera in 1986. Kodak started manufacturing
professional digital camera in 1991. In 1992, Nikon introduced an underwater camera
‘Nikonos RS’. Canon introduced their first digital SLR ‘EOS DCS-3’ in 1995. After few
months, it’s also introduced the world’s first camera lens with image stabilizer. In 1996,
canon introduced IXUS, a 2x zoom compact camera with the advanced photo system while
Digital IXUS was introduced in 2000. We cannot ignore the contribution of mobile phone
companies in the journey of photography as they took the art of capturing at people’s door
and made this art very popular among a huge number of populations. Mobile phone
companies like Samsung, Apple, Nokia etc. had produced numerous models with camera
facilities in last two decades. Samsung introduced its first camera phone ‘SCH-V200’ in the
same year. It had a camera of only 0.35 MP with very less storage capability. In 2002,
another phone company Nokia launched Nokia 7650 with 0.3 MP camera. In 2005, Nokia
started the manufacturing of its N series phone with camera which made the photo capturing
work easy. Coolpix 100 was launched by Nikon in 1997. Nikon D1 was introduced in 1999.
During 1999-2007, Nikon used Dx size sensor for its most of the camera while it’s also
launched Nikon D3 and Nikon D700 as full frame camera. Nikon also launched Nikon D90
in 2008 with the ability of video recording also. In 2005, Samsung launched the world’s first
7 mega-pixel camera cell phone ‘SCH-V770’. It had 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom
range and also had the feature of auto focus. During 1990-2000, various model of point &
shoot camera and DSLR of various company like Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Sony were
introduced in market. In 2000, Canon introduced the EOS D30, including a CMOS sensor. In
2007, canon introduced EOS- 1Ds Mark III DSLR with full frame. After one year, the EOS
5D Mark II, the first camera ever to incorporate full HD video, was introduced by the
company. Very soon, canon developed the world’s largest ultrasensitive sensor at 202 x 205
mm. In 2008, a new type of camera emerged, called a mirrorless interchangeable-lens
camera. It was technically a DSLR camera that doesn’t require a reflex mirror, a key
component of the former. In 2010, Samsung launched the first Galaxy S smartphone which
laid the foundation for a whole new innovation for smartphone cameras. It had 5 mega-pixel
main camera with a number of photography mode, and also had touch screen. Very soon,
Nokia launched ‘Nokia Lumia’ with good camera and different manual settings options.

As of 2014, mirrorless cameras are fast becoming appealing to both amateurs and
professionals alike due to their simplicity, compatibility with some DSLR lenses, and features
that match most DLSRs today. Nikon introduced D5 in 2016. In 2017, Nikon celebrated its
100th anniversary. In 2018, canon introduced mirrorless camera M50 while Nikon launched
its FX-format mirrorless camera Z7 in same year. During, 2010-2019 photography has
created space among very large number of consumers as many mobile companies have
produced smartphones with front and rear camera facility. This period of 10 years can be
considered as most revolutionary year for photography as most of smartphone-users are able
to click photograph. Smartphone companies understand the importance of this visual art, and
trying to attract its consumer by introducing new camera features on regular basis, and also
competing with companies like Canon and Nikon. The journey of digital era is continuing
with new technological invent as we can notice every year a significant change in the field of
photography.

References-

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4. Khan, Zaheer Husain. (2006). A Guide to Photography. New Delhi: School of Foto
Film and Television.
5. www.nikon.com
6. www.global.canon
7. www.samsung.com