The camera came in increments ... light (lens):

4th - 5th Centuries B.C. - Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.

1664 - 1666 - Isaac newton discovered that white light is composed of different colors.

1727 - Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light.

1794 - First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house invented by Robert Barker.

1814 - Joseph Nicephore Niepce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura. However, the image required 8 hours of light exposure and later faded.

1837 - Daguerr'es first dauerroetype, the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under 30 minutes of light exposure.

1840 - First American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.

1841 - William Henry Talbot patents the Calotype process - the first negative-positive process making possible the first multiple copies.

1843 - First advertisement with a photograph made in Philadelphia.

1851 - Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process - images required only 2 - 3 seconds of light exposure.

1859 - Panoramic camera patented - the Sutton

1861 - Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.

1865 - Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.

1871 - Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process - negatives no longer had to be developed immediately.

1880 - Eastman Dry Plate Company founded.

1884 - Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.

1888 - Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera.

1898 - Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1900 - First mass-marketed camera - the Brownie.

1913/1914 - First 35 mm still camera developed.

Here is more input:

In 1839 by Jon Bradford Eagle

Actually, the word "Camera" comes from the Arabic word "Kamra" which means "Dark room". The Camera was invented by a Muslim Astronomer/Physicist/Mathematician Alhazen. Europeans have taken a lot of inventions by Muslim scientists and called them their own. the camera is one of many.

The above 'Muslim-Centric' poster needs to check their facts. Alhazen did NOT invent the actual camera, he was merely a mathmetician and a comsmetician that copied scientific texts to enhance his income when he lived in Cairo. He took other discoveries and copied them for his own monetary gains. He did do an essay on Optics but his essay had nothing to do with the physical invention of the modern Camera. The term 'Camera' is derived from the latin words 'Camera Obscura'. The word you mention (which you did not spell correctly) 'Kamara' means 'Vaulted Chamber', not 'Dark Room' as you so incorrectly stated. Please check your facts before you post your incorrect and obviously one sided views. As for Europeans taking a lot from Muslims, you need to understand that many discoveries in this world were taught and handed down to others and expanded upon. It is that idea of SHARING that makes this modern world a fun place to live. Please do not disparage the rest of the world with your racist isolationist beliefs. Something that benefits all mankind should be shared, not greedily kept 'yours'.

To the best of my knowledge the negative / positive photographic process was first pioneered in England by an inventor called William Fox Talbot (1800 - 1877) in a abbey called Lacock.

Did you also know that to this day filmmakers can't resolve the problem of car or wagon wheels going backwards in a movie? Next time you watch a movie, take a close look at the car's wheels.

This backwards wheel effect might be due to the limits of the film (modern films are 24 frames a second, earlier films were less) producing this effect on your eye. I believe the human eye can process 28 frames per second but this discrepancy on film might be due to the slower rate. It also does this on propellers of airplanes in films.

The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicore Nipece using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. However, while this was the birth of photography, the camera itself can be traced back much further.

The first type of camera/imaging device is called the camera obscura. This was an optical device used in drawing, and one of the ancestral threads leading to the invention of photography.

The principles of the camera obscura have been known since antiquity. Its potential as a drawing aid may have been familiar to artists by as early as the 15th century; Leonardo da vinci once described the camera obscura. See links below for more information.

The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before technology caught up to the point where this was possible. Early photographic cameras were essentially similar to Zahn's model, though usually with the addition of sliding boxes for focusing. Before each exposure a sensitized plate would be inserted in front of the viewing screen to record the image. Jacques Daguerre's popular daguerreotype process utilized copper plates, while the calotype process invented by William Talbot recorded images on paper.

Modern times

However, one of the first and most easily recognized types, popular and easy- to-use for consumer too, was the single lens reflex (SLR) camera. This type was and is most commonly used from around 1959 to present. One of the most successful, easy-to-use and professional models of this type was the Nikon F.

Thomas Edison

Daguerre announced the latest perfection of the Daguerreotype, after years of experimentation, in 1839, with the French Academy of Sciences announcing the process on January 9 of that year. Daguerre's patent was acquired by the French Government, and, on August 19, 1839, the French Government announced the invention was a gift "Free to the World."Actually the first 'camera' was designed before Columbus. It was by simple deduction that an artist noticed a faint image on the opposing wall of a small building where a small hole was in the lighted side of the building. He worked on a lens that could be placed in a similar hole of another building and he noticed that the image on the opposite wall was rather clear, color and all, although upside down. He then proceeded to use oil paints that were in use to paint portraits at the time. He simply mixed the oils to match the colors and painted directly onto the image he was looking at. Today's cameras do the same thing minus the oil paint. Film cameras have replaced the oils with both silver halide salts and dyes. Digital cameras simply use super miniature diodes that are photo etched onto silicone slices (chips)and translates different ranges of the color spectrum into binary or machine language digital code.George Eastman (July 12, 1854 ? March 14, 1932) founded the Eastman Kodak Co. and invented roll film, which brought photography to the common man. The roll film was also the basis for the invention of the motion picture film, used by early filmmakers, the Lumi Brothers and Georges M

The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicore Nie using a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. However, while this was the birth of photography, the camera itself can be traced back much further. Before the invention of photography, there was no way to preserve the images produced by these cameras apart from manually tracing them.

The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before technology caught up to the point where this was possible. Early photographic cameras were essentially similar to Zahn's model, though usually with the addition of sliding boxes for focusing. Before each exposure a sensitized plate would be inserted in front of the viewing screen to record the image. Jacques Daguerre's popular daguerreotype process utilized copper plates, while the calotype process invented by William Fox Talbot recorded images on paper.

The development of the collodion wet plate process by Frederick Scott Archer in 1850 cut exposure times dramatically, but required photographers to prepare and develop their glass plates on the spot, usually in a mobile darkroom. Despite their complexity, the wet-plate ambrotype and tintype processes were in widespread use in the latter half of the 19th century. Wet plate cameras were little different from previous designs, though there were some models (such as the sophisticated Dubroni of 1864) where the sensitizing and developing of the plates could be carried out inside the camera itself rather than in a separate darkroom. Other cameras were fitted with multiple lenses for making cartes de visite. It was during the wet plate era that the use of bellows for focusing became widespread.

George Eastman invented the camera in 1888.

Ibn Haytham, a Muslim scientist was known the Father of Optics, He invented the first telescope and optic's concept. why so many claims without proves ? almost All modern sciences are comes from Muslim scientists.