With today’s digital cameras, often found in mobile phones, it is hard to believe that it is only a little over 120 years since the camera as we know it today was invented. The camera obscura dates from around 1000 BC and is basically a darkened box with a pinhole to allow light to enter and cast an image on a screen. However, the image in the “pin hole” camera could not be captured.
Work during the 19th century, particularly by George Eastman (the founder of Kodak) made it possible to capture images on a photographic plate. However, these plate type cameras were less than portable and required expert knowledge to operate them successfully. What was required was an easy to use and portable method of recording images. The key to this came on 4th September 1888 when Eastman patented roll film for the Kodak camera. The advertising slogan for this new camera complete with roll film was “You press the button, we do the rest”. A new era was born that had a significant effect on recording history by the masses. Family portraits and historical events increasingly became the norm for the many rather than the privilege of the rich.
Photographic film is a plastic with a coat of a light sensitive salt made from silver halide. When light strikes the film it stores an invisible or latent image on the crystals of the film coating. Developing the film involves treating the film with chemicals in order to reveal the images. This creates a negative where the colours are inverted. The negative is then ‘fixed’ which removes the image from the negative and printed onto photographic paper. Alternatively transparencies, which require a light source to project the image onto a screen, are also available.
Cameras evolved slowly between the late 1800’s and the early 1940’s. Then the next giant leap called instant photography appeared. Edwin Land launched the Polaroid camera in 1948. But it was the Polaroid swinger of 1965, which was sold in the US for less than $20, which further extended photography to the masses. Around this time the embryonic digital camera appeared in 1968 as a solid-state screen for storing optical images. Digital image storing removes the need for film and is the most instant form of image recording. In 1975 the first true prototype digital camera appeared but it weighed 8 pounds and took 23 seconds to capture an image! This camera was never put into production so was never available to the public. Mass production and increasing miniaturisation of digital hardware has now made it possible for a camera to be an add-on to other electrical products such a phones. And so we come back to where we came in at the start of this article.
A camera or a few photos and negatives can add authenticity to your dolls house so why not look through the photos and negatives we can offer on our web shop (photos and negatives are available in both kit and ready made forms for 1:12th and 1:24th scale) or even a 1:12th scale camera