The word photography comes from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"), and means - "writing with light". It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material (plate, film or digital sensor).
History of Photography Timeline:
* 5th-4th Centuries B.C. Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.
* 1664-1666 Isaac Newton discovers 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 Nicéphore Niépce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura - however, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.
* 1837 Daguerre’s first daguerreotype - the first image that was fixed and did not fade, and needed under thirty 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 two or three 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 George 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 35mm still camera developed.
* 1927 General Electric invents the modern flash bulb.
* 1932 First light meter with photoelectric cell introduced.
* 1935 Eastman Kodak markets Kodachrome film.
* 1941 Eastman Kodak introduces Kodacolor negative film.
* 1942 Chester Carlson receives patent for electric photography (xerography).
* 1948 Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera.
* 1954 Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.
* 1960 EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.
* 1963 Polaroid introduces instant color film.
* 1968 First photograph of the Earth from the Moon.
* 1973 Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.
* 1977 George Eastman and Edwin Land inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
* 1978 Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.
* 1980 Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder.
* 1984 Canon demonstrates first digital electronic still camera.
* 1985 Pixar introduces digital imaging processor.
* 1990 Eastman Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium, and Adobe Adobe Photoshop 1.0 image manipulation program is introduced for Apple Macintosh computers.
* 1993 Adobe Adobe Photoshop is made available for MS-Windows computers.
* 1993 NCSA Release the first World Wide Web browser.
* 1996 APS Advanced Photo System (APS) is introduced.
* 1996 Microsoft Release their WWW browser called Internet Explorer.
* 1998 The first consumer megapixel cameras were introduced.
* 2000 Canon introduced the EOS D30, the first digital SLR for the consumer market with a CMOS sensor. Sharp and J-Phone introduced the first camera-phone in Japan, and began the trend for camera-phones.
* 2002 Contax Contax introduced the NDigital, the first SLR digital camera with a CCD the same size as a 35 mm frame.
* 2003 More than 80% of Canon and Nikon's camera sales are of digital cameras. Nikon's 35mm SLR sales shrunk by 25%.
* 2004 Sales of new point and shoot cameras are 90% digital. Nikon completely stops new production of point and shoot 35mm film cameras. New York City proposes a ban on photography in its subways citing post 9/11 security concerns.
* 2005 Samsung introduces the world's first 7 megapixel camera phone. It is also the first camera phone to offer controls such as manual focus, AE lock, shutter priority, and the ability to use wide angle and telephoto converter lenses. Kodak announces it will discontinue production of its black and white photographic printing papers. Canon releases its 17.2MP 1Ds Mark II Camera which effectively gives approximately the same resolution as 35mm film.
