Camera Obscura

[Jopa79]

An image projected onto a wall by a hole in the tile roofing - phenomene naturel - camera obscura.

Camera Obscura is ancient Latin, meaning a dark chamber. As a remnant of it, 'camera' is still known today as the modern camera. Camera Obscura is a natural phenomenon - a darkened space, for instance, a room, with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall. The phenomenon was known already in the ancient China and by the ancient Greeks. Just before "discovering" the modern camera, this phenomenon was still used, at least until the very end of the 18th century, as a drawing aid.

I'm asking, if the Camera Obscura was already known about 500 years before Jesus, how it took more than 2 000 years to make us to invent the modern camera?

 

[Director]

The modern camera doesn't just display an image on a wall, it puts it on a surface so that the image can be seen even if the original light-source is stopped. Doing that requires a good knowledge of chemicals, both to get the image to form on the treated surface and a way to 'fix' it or stop it from darkening under regular light.

 

[Jopa79]

My interest in this matter "woke up" when I was a teenager, or a young adult, I just cannot remember exactly about which one it was. However, in the Finnish television, a single document program was broadcast telling about the Lewis and Clark Expedition during the very early of the 19th century.

The document was acted and dramatized, towards the end of that movie, Lewis and Clark discussed about, affiliating to their journey and the discoveries they did, while making the voyage through the American continent, maybe they would be immortalized by that "strange" phenomenon called camera obscura and the "shot" would be finished by drawing. It would almost look a like a real picture.

I think, this happened just before inventing the modern camera.

 

[Kovax]

Producing an image on a plate was possible with lenses for several centuries before the camera was invented, or through a pinhole for thousands of years before that if the light intensity was sufficient. As Director points out, it took major advances in chemistry to figure out how to develop silver iodide or other light-sensitive compounds in order to create a permanent image. Until then, the image only lasted for as long as the original source was still reflecting light through the lens or pinhole. That's not very useful: "I've got a GREAT picture of the Sphinx at Giza, but you've got to travel to Giza on a sunny day to see it". Why not just look at the real thing while you're there? Permanently fixing the image with chemicals made the resulting photograph portable.

 

[pithorr]

Producing an image on a plate was possible with lenses for several centuries before the camera was invented, or through a pinhole for thousands of years before that if the light intensity was sufficient. As Director points out, it took major advances in chemistry to figure out how to develop silver iodide or other light-sensitive compounds in order to create a permanent image. Until then, the image only lasted for as long as the original source was still reflecting light through the lens or pinhole. That's not very useful: "I've got a GREAT picture of the Sphinx at Giza, but you've got to travel to Giza on a sunny day to see it". Why not just look at the real thing while you're there? Permanently fixing the image with chemicals made the resulting photograph portable.

Before major advances of chemistry there was the painter's brush used to make it permament.

 

[Director]

That is true - but the image produced, however photographic, does take a long time compared to a photographer.

 

[Jopa79]

That is true - but the image produced, however photographic, does take a long time compared to a photographer.

This reminds me about the early tests, attemtpting adding color in movies before inventing the modern coloring techniques.

The movie studios had hundreds of people whom colored a frame after frame, by hand, attempting to add manually color in movies and films. I cannot even imagine, how long it would take, even to color by hand a-10-minute-long film?

Well, the results weren’t so promising and I think this experimental phase in the history of film making didn’t last so long.