By Matteo Martignago, cinematographer and founder of Artistic Hive · Updated July 2026
The first photographic camera was built around 1816 by the Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who used a sliding wooden box camera to capture the world’s oldest surviving photograph in 1826. The first camera you could actually buy came in 1839.
“The first camera” really means three different things, which is why the answer feels slippery. The camera obscura, an ancient device that projected images but couldn’t save them, goes back over 2,000 years to the philosopher Mozi. The first photographic camera, the one that fixed a permanent image, was Niépce’s, first built around 1816. And the first camera sold to the public was the daguerreotype camera made by Alphonse Giroux in 1839. The timeline below runs from a philosopher’s dark room to the phone in your pocket.
First Camera to Digital: A Full Timeline
| Year | Milestone | Who |
|---|---|---|
| c. 400 BC | Camera obscura principle first described | Mozi (China); later explained by Ibn al-Haytham, c. 1021 |
| 1685 | First portable box camera obscura | Johann Zahn |
| 1720s | Light-sensitive silver salts discovered | Johann Heinrich Schulze |
| c. 1816 | First photographic camera | Joseph Nicéphore Niépce |
| 1826 | Oldest surviving photograph, “View from the Window at Le Gras” | Joseph Nicéphore Niépce |
| 1839 | Daguerreotype unveiled; first commercial camera sold | Louis Daguerre; Alphonse Giroux |
| 1841 | Calotype negative-positive process (reproducible prints) | William Henry Fox Talbot |
| 1861 | First color photograph | James Clerk Maxwell |
| 1888 | Kodak roll-film camera; first motion-picture film shot | George Eastman; Louis Le Prince |
| 1925 | Leica 35mm, the modern handheld camera | Oskar Barnack / Leica |
| 1975 | First digital camera (prototype) | Steven Sasson, Eastman Kodak |
| 1990 | First consumer digital camera (Dycam Model 1) | Dycam |
| 1999–2000 | First camera phones (Kyocera VP-210, then Sharp J-SH04) | Kyocera; Sharp |
The Origins of the Camera
The camera can trace its origins back to the concept of the camera obscura, a simple device that projected an image onto a surface.
Camera Obscura
The Camera Obscura is where the story of the camera starts. Simple in design, it projects inverted images onto a surface through a tiny hole or aperture: a principle the Chinese philosopher Mozi described around 400 BC.
As centuries passed, lenses found their way into camera obscuras around 1550 to aid artists with drawing more detailed and lifelike images. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the next step. Where the camera obscura only threw a fleeting projection onto a wall, his heliography process fixed that image so it stayed.
That breakthrough fed directly into the daguerreotype, which produced sharp, high-contrast images no one had seen before.
Early Photographic Cameras
The first photographic cameras were crude, but they set the shape of everything that followed. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the first permanent photograph in 1826 with a wooden box camera.
This was no simple feat; it required an intense eight-hour exposure on pewter coated with bitumen. The result was ‘View from the Window at Le Gras‘, the earliest photograph that still survives.
The early 19th century swept in further advancements and refinements to these initial photographic devices. Improvements aimed for reduced exposure times and more practical methods for capturing and preserving images.
For centuries, from about 1550 on, the camera obscura was mainly an aid for drawing. It only became something more once photographers used it to record images they could keep.
The Invention of the First Camera
The camera became a product people could buy in 1839, thanks to the inventors who turned Niépce’s and Daguerre’s experiments into a working device.
The First Commercial Camera
Alphonse Giroux, a Parisian manufacturer and optician, teamed up with his brother Vincent to create the first commercial camera in 1839. Their creation was a daguerreotype camera, designed under the guidance of Louis Daguerre himself, the inventor who had perfected the process it was built around.
The brothers’ camera was the first that ordinary people could actually buy and use. Its straightforward design meant photography was no longer limited to inventors and chemists.
Rudimentary by today’s standards, it still established the basic template every camera since has built on.
The Inventors Behind the First Camera
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is celebrated as the creator of the first permanent photograph. Using a sliding wooden box camera, he brought his vision to life in 1826. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, another significant inventor, contributed a substantial improvement on Niépce’s technique.
He developed the daguerreotype process that quickly spread throughout Europe and North America. A third key figure was William Henry Fox Talbot, an independent inventor whose calotype process introduced the negative, letting one exposure yield many prints.
The commercial aspect can’t be forgotten; Alphonse Giroux took responsibility for crafting the first marketed daguerreotype camera in 1839.
Evolution of the Camera
Photographic cameras have evolved significantly over time, with advancements such as daguerreotypes and calotypes, the introduction of photographic film, the emergence of 35mm film, and the creation of iconic cameras like Kodak and Leica.
Daguerreotypes and Calotypes
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is credited with inventing the daguerreotype, a process that produced strikingly sharp, high-contrast images.
On the other hand, William Henry Fox Talbot invented calotypes, which introduced negative printing.
This allowed for multiple copies of an image to be made from a single negative. The daguerreotype gave you one flawless image; the calotype gave you copies. Between them they set the two paths photography would follow for the next century.
Introduction of Photographic Film
George Eastman is the reason film exists as we know it. In 1885 he introduced paper roll film, replaced by transparent celluloid film in 1889. Flexible film is what made motion pictures possible in the first place.
Eastman’s introduction of photographic film also made photography more accessible to the general public with his creation of the first Kodak camera. Thanks to this breakthrough, capturing images became easier and more convenient than ever before.
Emergence of 35mm Film
The arrival of 35mm film reshaped how people shot pictures. This smaller format, introduced in the early 20th century, fit far more frames on a single roll.
It was lightweight and portable, making it easier for photographers to document events and capture candid moments. Because the format was so compact, it made small, affordable cameras practical for the first time.
One notable example is the Kodak camera, which used 35mm film and became immensely popular among amateur photographers and the middle class. Convenient and versatile, 35mm put serious photography within reach of amateurs, not just studios, and stayed the dominant format for decades.
The Kodak Camera
George Eastman introduced the Kodak camera in 1888, and it changed who got to take pictures. It was the first camera built around roll film, so you no longer had to load and develop your own plates.
It featured a fixed focus lens and a single shutter speed, simplifying the process for amateurs. With the introduction of the Kodak camera, snapshot photography became accessible to everyone.
Its success catapulted the Kodak company into becoming a leading manufacturer in the photography industry.
The Leica Camera
The Leica, released by Leica in 1925, defined the modern handheld camera. Its thin, lightweight body made serious photography genuinely portable. The Leica camera was the first to introduce interchangeable lenses and modern viewfinders in the 1930s, setting new standards in photography.
By putting a capable camera in one hand, the Leica made candid, on-the-street photography possible and shaped how the medium looked for decades.
The Arrival of Color Film
Color film arrived with the development of two processes known as the Joly Process and the Autochrome Process.
The Joly Process
Dr. John Joly invented the Joly Process in 1894 to improve color reproduction in photographs. This innovative method involved using a three-colored filter screen that was placed in front of the camera’s plate when taking a photo.
The Joly Process made its commercial debut in 1895, but it faced challenges with poor color sensitivity, resulting in unsuccessful images. Despite these setbacks, it contributed to ongoing efforts during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to enhance color photography.
The Autochrome Process
The Autochrome Process, developed by Louis and Auguste Lumière in the early 20th century, was the first commercially viable way to capture vivid, realistic color in a photograph.
The process involved using a glass plate coated with a silver emulsion, onto which a mosaic of tiny potato starch grains dyed in red, green, and blue was applied. These grains acted as color filters that allowed light to pass through and create the final image.
Thanks to the Autochrome Process, photographers could now capture the world around them in vibrant color, bringing a new level of realism to their work.
The Advent of Video
Moving images changed what a camera could do. The story runs from Le Prince’s motion-picture experiments in the 1880s to the fully electronic video cameras of the mid-20th century.
The First Video Camera
Louis Le Prince is credited with building the first motion-picture camera in 1888, the device behind the earliest surviving film, the Roundhay Garden Scene. It used a single lens and paper film to record real movement for the first time. Fully electronic video cameras, as opposed to these early film movie cameras, only arrived decades later in the 1920s and 1930s.
In October of that year, Le Prince recorded the first-ever moving-image footage with his camera, a short film titled “Roundhay Garden Scene.” It’s worth noting that Le Prince’s invention predates the motion picture cameras developed by Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers.
The Race for the First Video Camera
Étienne-Jules Marey and Thomas Edison were among the pioneers racing to record motion. In 1882, Étienne-Jules Marey built a camera that could capture 12 images per second, an early step toward putting movement on film.
Meanwhile, Thomas Edison was also experimenting with moving pictures and built his own motion-picture device, the Kinetograph. These experiments fed directly into the motion-picture cameras that followed and, eventually, the video cameras we use now.
The Digital Revolution
During the digital revolution, significant advancements were made in camera technology, leading to the invention of the first digital camera and paving the way for modern photography.
The First Digital Camera
The first digital camera was created by Steven Sasson in 1975. It weighed 8 pounds and had a resolution of 0.01 megapixels. Using a CCD sensor, the camera captured images that were recorded onto a cassette tape and displayed on a television.
Kodak never sold it, though; Sasson’s camera stayed a lab prototype.
Sasson’s First Proper Digital Camera
Steven Sasson built the first working digital camera in 1975, the machine that kicked off the shift from film to sensors. It was capable of capturing black and white images, which were then stored onto a cassette tape.
Crude as it was, Sasson’s prototype proved the core idea, capturing an image with a sensor instead of film, that every digital camera since has relied on.
Developments in the 1980s
Digital imaging moved from lab curiosity toward real products in the 1980s, building on the first digital camera prototype Steven Sasson had built in 1975.
Not until 1990 did the Dycam Model 1 reach the market as the first digital camera consumers could actually buy. From there, digital photography took off in earnest.
The digital shift that began in these years changed photography for good, in how we take pictures and, just as much, how we share them.
The Modern Era
In the modern era, digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) have become popular among professional photographers for their advanced features and high-quality images. Camera phones, meanwhile, have pulled photography into everyday life, with convenience and steadily improving image quality that put a capable camera in almost every hand.
Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs)
DSLRs, or Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras, have become incredibly popular in the modern era of photography. These cameras offer a range of advanced features and superior image quality compared to film cameras.
One key advantage of DSLRs is that users can see the exact image recorded on the digital sensor through the viewfinder, allowing for precise composition and adjustments. Additionally, DSLRs are highly versatile and cater to both hobbyists and professional photographers.
They include features like light meters and easily adjustable settings for shutter speed and aperture sizes, giving photographers greater control over their images. In short, DSLRs married the flexibility of a traditional SLR to a digital sensor, giving photographers both instant results and full manual control.
Camera Phones
Camera phones put a camera in every pocket. The first, the Kyocera VP-210, arrived in 1999 with a 110,000-pixel camera and a color screen.
These devices allow for instant capture and sharing of photos, making them immensely popular among users. Camera phones have had a significant impact on various industries like journalism by enabling quick image capture and sharing from the scene.
With their ability to provide easy access to photography on the go, camera phones have changed the way we document our lives and share memories with others.
From a Wooden Box to Your Pocket
In two centuries the camera went from an eight-hour exposure on a pewter plate to a sensor that fires in a fraction of a second, and from a device only a handful of inventors could build to one that sits in nearly every pocket. Niépce fixed the first image, Daguerre and Giroux made it a product, Eastman put it in everyone’s hands, and Sasson turned it digital. Every phone photo you take is the far end of that same line.
When Was the First Camera Invented? FAQ
Who invented the first camera?
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented the first photographic camera and made the first permanent photograph. The camera obscura that came before it had no single inventor; its principle was described in antiquity and refined over centuries.
When was the first camera made?
Niépce built his photographic camera around 1816 and made the oldest surviving photograph in 1826. The first camera sold commercially, the Giroux daguerreotype, appeared in 1839.
What was the first camera called?
Niépce’s had no brand name; it was a sliding wooden box camera used with his heliography process. The first commercially named camera was the Giroux Daguerreotype, built by Alphonse Giroux under Louis Daguerre in 1839.
When was the first photograph taken?
The oldest surviving photograph was taken in 1826. Titled “View from the Window at Le Gras,” it needed an exposure of about eight hours and shows the view from an upper window of an estate in Burgundy, France.
Who took the first photograph?
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the French inventor who built the first photographic camera. He captured it using his heliography process on a pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen.
When was the first digital camera invented?
Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, built the first digital camera in 1975. The prototype captured a 0.01-megapixel image to cassette tape and took 23 seconds per shot. The first digital camera sold to consumers was the Dycam Model 1 in 1990.
When was the first video camera invented?
Louis Le Prince shot the first moving-image film in 1888 with an early motion-picture camera, and the Lumière brothers projected the first movies in 1895. Fully electronic video cameras came later, in the 1920s and 1930s.
What is a camera obscura?
A camera obscura is a dark box or room with a small hole that projects the scene outside, upside down, onto the opposite surface. It is the optical ancestor of the camera: it shows an image but cannot record one. The name is Latin for “dark chamber.”
