The Camera Obscura

A camera obscura was one of the first optical devices that lead to the creation of photography and the camera. It is essentially a box or room with a hole in one side that projects an image of its surroundings upside down onto a screen or wall. The pinhole itself is the most important part of a camera obscura, otherwise it would just be a black box and no light would get in.

•   Earliest mention by Chinese philosopher Mo Ti 5^th Century BC
• He formally recorded the creation; called it a collecting place or the locked treasure room
• Aristotle (384-322BC) understood the optical principle of the camera obscure. He viewed the crescent of a partially eclipsed sun projected on the ground through a sieve.
• Islamic scholar Alhazen c.965 – 1039) gave full account of principle including experiments with five lanterns outside a room with a small hole.
• In 1490 Leonardo Da Vinci gave two clear descriptions on camera obscura in notebooks. Many first camera obscuras were large rooms like illustrated by the Dutch scientist Reinerus Gemma-Frisius in 1544 for use in observing a solar eclipse.

Alzahen, from Basrah, Iraq, was an Arab Mathematcian, Astronomer and Philosopher amongst other things; he significantly contributed to the research and development of optics, mathematics, medicine and scientific method. Alzahen’s work included the first clear description and analysis of the Camera Obsucra. Alhazen studied the process of sight, the structure of the eye, image formation in the eye, and the visual system.

There are a few different dates given to the invention of the first photographic camera, the earliest being 1816 “The first partially successful photograph of a camera image was made in approximately 1816 by Nicéphore Niépce using a very small camera of his own making and a piece of paper coated with silver chloride, which darkened where it was exposed to light.” Whereas the date for the invention of the first film camera called the “Kodak” was offered for sale in 1888. The next step was to find out how to record the image the camera obscura produced, different materials were experimented with i.e. paper, metals etc.