History of Photography

​

Professional development has been insightful, learning the History of photography has given me knowledge and insight into the origins and evolution of photography, photographers, cameras and applications.

From the time of Ancients using crude reflective metal or mirror to bring light to art around 500BC to now within the Digital Era, photography has come a long way and I am excited to see where it will take us in the future.

Time Period Favourites:

​

1800 – 1850:

​

Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce created the oldest surviving photograph sometime around 1826. Working closely with Niepce was Louis Daguerre. Daguerre developed the daguerreotype, which entailed images requiring less than one hour of exposure and did not fade with time.

​

1850 – 1900:

​

Eadweard Muybridge uses a row of cameras with trip wire to take a high speed photograph of a galloping horse. The picture is taken in less than the 2/2000th of a second, and they are taken in rapid sequence 25 per second they constitute a brief, real-time movie that can be viewed by using a device such as a zoetrope a photographic first.

​

1900 – 1930:

​

Frank Hurley OBE 1885 – 1962  In 1902 Frank bought his first camera aged 17, for a 15 shilling Kodak Box Brownie which he paid for at the rate of a shilling per week. He taught himself photography and set himself up in the postcard business.

 He is also a well - known Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica with Mawson and others. He served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.

His artistic style produced many memorable images. He also used staged scenes, composites and photographic manipulation.

​

1930 – 1970:

​

Kodachrome is a brand name for a non-substantive, colour reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935.

It was one of the first successful colour materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. Because of its complex processing requirements, the film was sold process-paid in the United States until 1954 when a legal ruling prohibited this. 

 Elsewhere, this arrangement continued. For many years it was used for professional colour photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. 

 

 

1970 – 2000:

 

Autofocus, Electronic cameras and Digital Imagery ERA

A then unknown company called Konica introduced the first mass produced autofocus point-and-shoot camera in 1978, which simplified picture-taking for amateurs. The Canadians became the first to invent the digital camera when the University of Calgary Canada ASI Science Team constructed the Fairchild All-Sky camera in 1981. Fuji was the first to offer a digital camera for public use.

Image development and storage took on a new meaning when Kodak provided consumers with the option of getting photographs printed on traditional film or have them transferred to a photograph CD in 1990. Global High Dynamic Range imaging was introduced in 1993. Sony marketed two cameras in 1997 that automatically saved images on internal floppy discs.

 In 1998 ISO standard 12232:1998 is released.

In 1999, Nikon Released their D1 SLR, 2.74 MP for $6000. The SD Card was being developed for market.

 

2000 -2015:

​

Era of Digital Images and Cameras: Taking it to the next level

2001, Polaroid goes bankrupt and reorganizes. Canon releases the 1D DSLR.

​

2002, Nikon released the D100 to compete with Canon. The Afghan Girl is identified as Sharbat Gula and re photographed by Steve Curry for Nat Geo. In response to Nikon Cano brings out the 1Ds, the first 35mm sensor professional DSLR. And the competition begins…….From here on we see Olympus E-1, Canon rebel or EOS introduced.

​

2005, Canon introduces the EOS5D, the first consumer priced 35mm DSLR with a 24x36mm CMOS sensor for $3000.

Dalsa produces the 111MP, CCD sensor the highest resolution of it’s time.

​

2007, Lightroom is released. Nikon releases D40x and D300 DSLRs, Canon releases 1Ds Mk iii. Slowly we see brands like Panansonic release the Lumix G1 the first mirrorless camera

​

In 2011, Lytro announced the first consumer plenoptic camera which allows users to change the focus of a photograph after it is taken. The Lytro camera was introduced in February of 2012.

Canon released lenses with STM, short for stepping motor, capability in 2012. STM lenses reduce the noise in lens’ zoom and focus during video recording. STM allows the lens to maintain auto-focus whether in camera or video mode.

Canon, introduced touch shutter function in the low-end DSLR Rebel series beginning with the T4i. Sigma released the 15.4MP SD1 with the foven Sensor.

​

2013, Ricoh/ Pentax release thr K-3 the first DSLR with an in camera switchable micro vibrate anti aliasing filter.

​

2014 Pentax release the 645z, 51 MP CMOS medium format camera.

​

2015 Canon release the long a waited 7D Mkii. Dedicated camera sales see a decline in sales due to improved smart device cameras and the diminishing level of improvement between camera models. Where will this take us in the future who knows, maybe back to the old drawing board and we will wait and see!

​