History of the Camera

Photo and Video 101



The first camera was developed by John Strognofe in 1685. It was compact enough to be carried around, but its' flaws were greater then it's practical use. Throughout this time span, all types of chemicals were used that had reactions from the light appearing through the lens. The first basic picture of some quality was made by coating silver nitrate over a copper plate. When light through the lens hit the plate, the silver nitrate reacted by turning black. You've probably seen these photographs in books, museums, and even in the old time movies.

Around the late 1800's the Eastman Company was formed. This company took all the previous knowledge and began to develop what we call film today. Eastman patented Kodak film in 1888. Video was also progressing, but that's another series, we will get into later. Kodak became the buzz word for the camera and to this day Eastman-Kodak holds a substantial share of the personal market. Kodak had some professional equipment, but other companies had emerged with much better equipment and quality. Kodak could not compete and filed for Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Laws for re-structuring. Kodak lost their foothold in the marketplace, but they would come back strong later in the late 1900's. Their mainstay at this time was in the personal market with the new Polaroid Camera's, which we all have owned in our lives. A camera that could develop its' pictures in minutes not weeks. Kodak still had its' film cameras and was moving towards the future to catch up with the other camera companies.

With the on-set of the computer revolution, Japanese companies were already ahead of the U.S. companies with digital pictures. The U.S. companies gave the Japanese the tools needed to create this new realm of photography. Intel and IBM lead the pack with the basic equipment and the Japanese led the way with the use. To this day, we are head to head in producing the finest in photographic equipment and Kodak still leads the way in the finest quality photographic film and paper and processing equipment. Our favorites coming up, next time.