History of Video Technology and Photography

History of Video Technology and PhotographyBy Mary Claire Paddock

5th - 4th centuries B.C.

The basic principles of optics and the camera are described by Chinese and

Greek philosophers.

Ancient TimesCamera obscuras were used to form images on walls in darkened rooms; image formation via a pinhole.

1664Isaac Newton

discovers that white light is composed of

different colors.

1727Johann Heinrich Schulze

discovers that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to

light. This was the beginning to photographic technology that would be

essential for movies.

1822Joseph Niepce takes first, fixed photograph

using a non-lense contact-printing heliographic process.

1837Louis Dagurre took first

image that was fixed, did not fade, and needed less

than thirty minutes of light exposure.

1839William Fox Talbot invents the positive/negative process widely used in modern photography. He refers to this a photogenic drawing.

1861The first color photograph was taken by James Clerk Maxwell. The image is of a tartan ribbon.

1878Edward Muybridge made a high-speed photographic demonstration of a moving horse, airborne during a trot, using a trip-wire system.

1884

George Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.

1888Kodak n1 box camera is

mass marketed as the first easy to use camera.

1891Thomas Edison patents the kinetoscopic camera (motion pictures).

1900 The Kodak Brownie.

1913

First 35mm still camera is developed.

1914The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, the first dramatic feature film in color is released.

1923

Doc Harold Edgerton invents the xenon flash

lamp and strobe photography.

1926Kodak introduces its 35

mm Motion Picture Duplicating Film for

duplicate negatives. Previously, motion picture

studios used a second camera alongside the

primary camera to create a duplicate negative.

1932The first full color movie, the cartoon Flowers and Trees, is made in Technicolor by Disney.

1932First 8mm amateur motion picture film, cameras, and projectors are introduced by Kodak.

1939The View-Master stereo viewer is introduced.

1942

Chester Carson received a patent for electric

photography, xerography.

1948

Edwin H. Land introduces the first Polaroid instant

image camera.

1952The 3-D film craze begins.

1957First digital image

produced on a computer by Russell Kirsch at U.S.

National Institute of Standards and

Technology.

1959

AGFA introduces the first fully automatic camera,

the Optima.

1973Fairchild semiconductor releases the first large

image forming CCD chip; 100 rows and 100

columns.

1975

Sony introduces the Betamax consumer VCR

for $2,295.

1976

JVC introduces the VHS format for the VCR starting at $885.

1980Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder, an

electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into

one unit.

1984

Cannon demonstrates first digital camera.

1986

Kodak scientists invent the world’s first

megapixel sensor.

1990Eastman Kodak

announces the photo CD as a digital image storage

medium.

1996DVD-Video players start

selling in Japan.

2006

Dalsa produces 111 megapixel CCD sensor,

the highest resolution at its time.

2006Digital photography

steadily edged out the use of a film camera, so much that Polaroid announces it

is discontinuing the production of all instant film

products.

2006

The first HD DVD players are released in Japan for

$934.

2008

The Blu-ray and HD DVD war is over, and Blu-ray is declared the winner. After Wal-Mart stores said they would no longer sell HD DVD players, Toshiba, the main backer of HD DVD high-definition disc technology,

declared that the company would no longer continue to manufacture HD DVD

players.