| Date |
Development |
| 600BC |
Pinhole cameras
 /camera
Obscura principle
developed, explained by Chinese philosopher Mo Ti and Greek mathematicians
Aristotle and Euclid. |
| 330BC |
First
reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible, was observed
and noted by Aristotle. |
| 1000 |
Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages who
lived around 1000AD, invented the first pinhole camera, (a form of Camera Obscura) and was able to explain why the images were upside down. |
| 1200's |
Albertus Magnus discovered silver nitrate. |
| 1500's |
Georges Fabricius discovered silver
chloride. |
| 1658 |
Daniel Barbaro described a diaphragm. |
| 1600's |
Late 1600 Isaac Newton discovers that
white light is made up of different colours. |
| 1604 |
Johannes Kepler was the first person to coin the phrase Camera Obscura. |
| 1609 |
Johannes Kepler suggested the use of a lens to improve the image projected
by a Camera Obscura. |
| 1694 |
Wilhelm Homberg described how light
darkened some chemicals (photochemical effect). |
| 1724 |
Johann Heinrich Schultz discovered in 1724
that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light. |
| 1700's |
The novel Giphantie, by French author
Tiphaigne de la Roche, described what can be interpreted as
photography. |
| 1794 |
Robert
Barker - First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house. |
| 1800 |
Abound 1800 Thomas Wedgewood produced
images on paper, but with no method of fixing they lasted only seconds when
exposed to light. |
| 1814 |
Joseph
Niepce creates photographic image with camera obscura but the image required
eight hours of light exposure and later faded. |
| 1822 |
Nicéphore Niépce takes the first
fixed, permanent photograph, of an engraving of Pope Pius VII, using
a non-lens contact-printing "heliographic process" commonly called
sun prints, but it was destroyed
later, the earliest surviving example is from 1825. |
| 1826 |
Nicéphore Niépce takes the first fixed,
permanent photograph from nature, a landscape that required an eight hour
exposure. |
| 1829 |
Partnership between Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre
to develop the ideas of Niépce further. |
| 1835 |
William Fox Talbot creates his own
photography process. |
| 1837 |
Louis
Daguerre's first daguerreotype - the first image that was fixed and did not
fade and needed under thirty minutes of light exposure. |
| 1839 |
Louis Daguerre patents the
daguerreotype. French Government bought the patent and put it into Public
Domain. |
| 1839 |
Word "Photography" first used by Sir John
Herschel - derives from the Greek words phōs or phōtós meaning light, and
gráphein, meaning to write. |
| 1839 |
John Herschel demonstrates hyposulfite of
soda (also known as hypo, or sodium thiosulfate) as a fixer, and makes the
first glass negative. |
| 1839 |
William Fox Talbot invented the positive/negative process widely used in most later film photography. He refers to
this as photogenic drawing. This was patented stifling many other
developments. The process is called Calotype meaning in Greek "beautiful picture". |
| 1840 |
First
American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera. |
| 1841 |
Janez Puhar invented a process for making
photographs on glass in 1841. Tt was recognized on June 17, 1852 |
| 1847 |
Niépce St Victor published his invention
of a process for making glass plates with an albumen emulsion. |
| 1847 |
Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky
designed a bellows camera which significantly improved the process of
focusing. |
| 1840's |
In the mid 40's Langenheim brothers of
Philadelphia and John Whipple of Boston also invented workable
negative-on-glass processes. |
| 1849 |
Levitsky would first propose the idea to
artificially light subjects in a studio setting using electric lighting
along with daylight. |
| 1851 |
Introduction of the collodion process by
Frederick Scott Archer. This was the process used by Lewis Carroll the
author.
Images required only two or three seconds of light exposure.
The process involved wet plates that had to be developed in a mobile
darkroom before they dried out. |
| 1852 |
W. Rollman first illustrated the principle
of the anaglyph (3D)
using blue and red lines on a black field with red and blue glasses to
perceive the effect. |
| 1854 |
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri credited with
the introduction of the carte de visite (French "visiting card"). Disdéri
introduced a camera with multiple lenses, which could reproduce eight
individually exposed images on a single negative. After printing on albumen
paper, the images were cut apart and glued to calling card-sized mounts.
|
| 1856 |
Tintypes, patented by Hamilton Smith. A thin sheet of iron was used to
provide a base for light sensitive material, yielding a positive image. |
| 1858 |
Joseph D'Almeida began projecting
three dimensional magic lantern slide shows using red and green filters with
the audience wearing red and green goggles. |
| 1859 |
Panoramic camera patented - the Sutton. |
| 1861 |
The first colour photograph, an additive
projected image of a tartan ribbon, is shown by James Clerk Maxwell. Three
pictures were taken, each through a primary colour filter, and projecting
the three using corresponding filters, so that they overlapped, colour
pictures could be re-created. |
| 1862 |
Louis Ducos du Hauron and Charles Cros, two
French inventors (working independently), each produce several patentable
methods for producing images (by either additive or subtractive methods). |
| 1861 |
Oliver
Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer
(3D).
|
| 1868 |
Louis Ducos du Hauron patents a method of
subtractive colour photography. |
| 1871 |
The gelatin emulsion is invented by
Richard Maddox. - Producing the first dry plates.
Gelatin
dry plate silver bromide process, negatives no longer had to be developed
immediately, and faster shutter speeds allowed handheld photography for the
first time. |
| 1876 |
F. Hurter & V. C. Driffield begin
systematic evaluation of sensitivity characteristics of photographic
emulsions – science of sensitometry. |
| 1878 |
Eadweard Muybridge made a high-speed
photographic demonstration of a moving horse, airborne during a trot, using
a trip-wire system. |
| 1878 |
English
inventor and manufacturer, Frederick Wratten founded one of the first
photographic supply businesses, Wratten and Wainwright who manufactured and
sold collodion glass plates and gelatin dry plates.
Wratten invented the "noodling process" of silver-bromide gelatin emulsions
before washing, in the same year. |
| 1880's |
Hans Jakob Schmid invented the Photochrome
process, starting with B&W negatives, hand coloured and colour separated to
make printing stones. Produced some of the first colour photos in volume,
many available today. The Detroit Photographic Company reportedly produced
as many as seven million Photochrome prints in some years, and ten to thirty
thousand different views were offered. The last Photochrome printer operated
up until 1970. |
| 1880 |
Eastman Dry Plate Company founded. |
| 1884 |
George Eastman, of Rochester, New
York, developed dry gel on paper, or film, to replace the photographic plate
so that a photographer no longer needed to carry boxes of plates around - this was based on the process by Fox Talbot. |
| 1887 |
Celluloid film base introduced.
|
| 1887 |
Blitzlichtpulver or flashlight powder was invented in Germany in 1887 by
Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke. Lycopodium powder (the waxy spores from
club moss) was used in early flash powder. |
| 1888 |
Kodak Number1 box camera is mass marketed.
The first easy-to-use camera,
wooden,
light-tight box with a simple lens and shutter that was factory-filled with
film. The photographer pushed a button to produce a negative. Once the film
was used up, the photographer mailed the camera, with the film still in it, to
the Kodak factory where the film was removed from the camera, processed, and
printed. The camera was then reloaded with film and returned. For
$22.00, a camera with enough film for 100 shots could be purchased.
After use, it was sent back to the company, which then processed the film.
The ad slogan read, "You press the button, we do the rest." A year
later it was changed to a celluloid base, so that photographers could
do their own processing. |
| 1887 |
Gabriel Lippmann invents a "method of
reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of
interference". |
| 1891 |
Thomas Edison patents the "kinetoscopic
camera" (moving pictures). |
| 1891 |
Louis Ducas du Hauron first printed
anaglyphs (3D). This process consisted of printing the two negatives which
form a stereoscopic photograph on to the same paper, one in blue (or green),
one in red. |
| 1895 |
Auguste and Louis Lumière – invented the cinématographe. |
| 1898 |
Kodak introduced their Folding Pocket
Kodak. |
| 1900 |
Kodak introduced their first Brownie.
(Maybe 1901). |
| 1901 |
Kodak introduced the 120 film.
|
| 1902 |
Arthur Korn devises practical
phototelegraphy technology (reduction of photographic images to signals that
can be transmitted by wire to other locations). Wire-Photos were in wide use in
Europe by 1910, and transmitted inter-continentally by 1922. |
| 1905 |
Oskar
Barnack Development Manager for Leica, had the idea of reducing the format of
film negatives and then enlarging the photographs after they had been
exposed. Later he would, in 1925, produce the first 35mm camera, using movie
film. |
| 1905 |
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii,
developed a colour process that involved three separate monochrome
exposures ('separation negatives') of a still scene through red, green, and
blue filters. These required a special machine to display, but the results
are impressive even by modern standards. In 1909 he got the backing of Tsae
Nicholas II to travel, teach photography and resulted in over 10,000 colour
photos being taken of Russia before the Russian revolution. Over 2,500 of
his photos survive. |
| 1906 |
Wratten
with the assistance of Dr C.E. Kenneth Mees (E.C.K Mees) invented and
produced the first panchromatic plates in England. Wratten is best known for
the photographic filters that he invented and are still named after him -
Wratten Filters. Eastman Kodak purchased his company in 1912. |
| 1907 |
The Autochrome Lumière is the first
practical colour photography process marketed. |
| 1908 |
Kinemacolor, a two-colour process that was
the first commercial "natural colour" system for movies, is introduced.
|
| 1909 |
Kodak introduces a 35mm "safety" motion
picture film on an acetate base as an alternative to the highly flammable
nitrate base. The motion picture industry discontinues its use after 1911
due to technical imperfections. |
| 1912 |
Vest Pocket Kodak using 127 film.
|
| 1912 |
Kodak introduces the 22mm amateur motion
picture format, a "safety" stock on acetate base. |
| 1913 |
Kodak makes 35mm panchromatic motion
picture film available on a bulk special order basis. |
| 1913 |
Prototype 35mm camera produced by Oskar
Barnack, at Leitz, test marketed in 1923/4 not marketed to the public until
1925. |
| 1914 |
Kodak introduced the Autographic film
system. |
| 1914 |
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, the
first dramatic feature film in colour (Kinemacolor), is released.
|
| 1920s |
Yasujiro Niwa invented a device for
photo-telegraphic transmission through cable and later via radio.
|
| 1922 |
Kodak makes 35mm panchromatic motion
picture film available as a regular stock. |
| 1922 |
Kodak introduces 16mm reversal film, on
cellulose acetate (safety) base. |
| 1923 |
Doc Harold Edgerton invents the Xenon
flash lamp and strobe photography. |
| 1925 |
Leica introduced the 35mm format
to still photography. |
| 1926 |
Kodak introduces its 35mm Motion Picture
Duplicating Film for duplicate negatives. Previously, motion picture studios
used a second camera alongside the primary camera to create a duplicate
negative. |
| 1927 |
General Electric invents the flash bulb called
Sashalite. |
| 1930 |
The
first commercially available photoflash bulb was patented by German,
Johannes Ostermeier. These flashbulbs were named the Vacublitz. |
| 1932 |
The first full colour movie, the cartoon
Flowers and Trees, is made in Technicolor by Disney. |
| 1932 |
First 8mm amateur motion picture film,
cameras, and projectors are introduced by Kodak. |
| 1932 |
First
light meter with photoelectric cell introduced. |
| 1934 |
The 135 film cartridge was introduced,
making 35mm easy to use. |
| 1935 |
Becky Sharp, the first feature film made
in full colour (Technicolor), is released. |
| 1936 |
Introduction by IHAGEE of the Ihagee Kine
Exakta 1, the first 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. |
| 1936 |
Development of Kodachrome multi-layered
reversal colour film. |
| 1937 |
Agfacolor-Neu reversal colour film.
|
| 1938 |
Fully automatic Super Kodak Six-20. The first
camera to connect a light meter to the settings. |
| 1939 |
Agfacolor negative-positive colour
material, the first modern colour "print" film. |
| 1939 |
The View-Master stereo viewer (3D)
is
introduced. |
| 1942 |
Kodacolor, Kodak's first Colour "print" film.
|
| 1942 |
Chester Carlson receives patent for electric photography (xerography). |
| 1947 |
Dennis Gabor invents holography.
|
| 1947 |
Edgerton develops the Rapatronic camera
for the U.S. government. (Ultra high speed) |
| 1948 |
The Hasselblad camera introduced.
|
| 1948 |
Edwin H. Land introduces the first
Polaroid instant image camera. |
| 1948 |
The Contax S camera was introduced, the
first 35mm SLR camera with pentaprism for eye-level viewing. |
| 1952 |
The
3D
film craze begins. |
| 1954 |
Leica M Introduced. |
| 1954 |
Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film. |
| 1957 |
The first image scanned into a digital
computer. |
| 1957 |
First Asahi Pentax SLR introduced.
|
| 1957 |
First digital image produced on a
computer by Russell Kirsch at U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now known
as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST).
|
| 1959 |
Nikon F introduced. |
| 1959 |
AGFA introduces the first fully automatic
camera, the Optima. |
| 1960 |
EG&G
develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy. |
| 1962 |
First SLR to have TTL (through the lens
metering) is Topcon RE Super. |
| 1963 |
Kodak introduces the Instamatic.
|
| 1963 |
Polaroid introduces instant colour film. |
| 1964 |
First Pentax Spotmatic SLR introduced.
|
| 1968 |
Photograph of the Earth from the moon. |
| 1973 |
Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first
large image forming CCD chip; 100 rows and 100 columns. |
| 1973 |
Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera. |
| 1975 |
Bryce Bayer of Kodak develops the Bayer
filter mosaic pattern for CCD colour image sensors. |
| 1975 |
The first recorded attempt at building a
digital (analogue) camera. Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak used
the then new solid-state CCD image sensor chips developed by Fairchild
Semiconductor in 1973. The camera weighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg), recorded black
and white images to a cassette tape, had a resolution of 0.01 megapixels
(10,000 pixels), and took 23 seconds to capture its first image in December
1975. The prototype camera was a technical exercise, not intended for
production. |
| 1978 |
Konica
introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera. |
| 1980 |
Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder. |
| 1985 |
Pixar
introduces digital imaging processor. |
| 1986 |
Kodak scientists invent the world's first
megapixel sensor. |
| 1986 |
Disposable cameras introduced - now have
recyclable parts. |
| 1986 |
Canon RC-701 first marketed Analog
electronic camera. First analog camera marketed to consumers Canon RC-250
Xapshot in 1988. First demonstrated 1984. |
| 1988 |
The first true digital camera that
recorded images as a computerized file was likely the Fuji DS-1P of 1988,
which recorded to a 16MB internal memory card that used a battery to keep
the data in memory. This camera was never marketed or shipped to anyone. |
| 1990 |
The first commercially available digital
camera was the 1990 Dycam Model 1, it also sold as the Logitech Fotoman. It
used a CCD image sensor, stored pictures digitally, and connected directly
to a computer for download. |
| 1991 |
Kodak brought to market the Kodak DCS-100,
the beginning of a long line of professional Kodak DCS SLR cameras that were
based in part on film bodies, often Nikons. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor
and was priced at $13,000. |
| 1999 |
Introduction of the Nikon D1, a 2.74
megapixel camera that was the first digital SLR developed entirely by a
major manufacturer, and at a cost of under $6,000, at introduction, was
affordable by professional photographers and high end consumers. This camera
also used Nikon F-mount lenses, which meant film photographers could use
many of the same lenses they already owned. |
| 2005 |
AgfaPhoto files for bankruptcy. Production
of Agfa brand consumer films ends. |
| 2008 |
Polaroid announces it is discontinuing the
production of all instant film products, citing the rise of digital imaging
technology. |
| 2009 |
Kodak announces the discontinuance of
Kodachrome film. |
| 2010 |
3D Televisions become available |
