The first cameras looked very different from modern cameras.
The history of the camera extends back for hundreds of years to ancient China with the invention of the camera obscura, a special box that used mirrors to project an image. In the 19th century, several scientists developed precursors to the modern camera that could record an image permanently. These cameras improved their technology until the 20th century, when cameras and film as we know them appeared.
Joseph Niepce
Joseph Niepce recorded the first photograph in 1827. He used a box camera obscura, an ancient invention that reflected images using mirrors. In the back, he added a special pewter plate coated in a substance called bitumen, a type of petroleum that hardens when exposed to light. He washed this plate with oil of lavender and white petroleum that removed any bitumen not hardened by light, leaving only the image on the pewter. This process took over eight hours of exposure.
Daguerreotype
Niepce partnered with a man named Louis Daguerre, who continued Niepce's work after Niepce died of a stroke in 1833. Daguerre made improvements to Niepce's design and announced his discovery in 1839. Daguerre took copper plates and exposed them to iodine vapors, forming light-sensitive silver iodide. He then inserted these plates into the camera obscura for a half hour, capturing the image. Daguerre then exposed the plates to mercury vapors that would highlight the most exposed areas and form the image on the plate. Daguerre then washed the plate in a salt solution, making the image permanent. This process soon became highly popular.
Collodion
Frederick Scott Archer discovered collodion in 1851, transforming photography. Collodion is a viscous mixture of guncotton dissolved in alcohol that created a thin film that was then mixed with silver bromide, silver iodide or silver chloride. Collodion reduced exposure times to seconds instead of hours and enabled photographers to cheaply print their photographs on paper. Initially, photographers applied collodion wet, but in 1871 Richard Leach Maddox invented a gelatin plate coated with collodion, called a dry plate, that could be prepared beforehand, making photography cheap, portable and easy.
Film
John Carbutt combined celluloid, a flexible plastic, with collodion dry plate to create the first type of camera film. In 1889, George Eastman began to sell this film with his "Kodak" camera, the world's first box camera, which he introduced a year earlier. This Kodak camera with celluloid film is the first product that resembles a modern camera.
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