I thought it might be interesting to create a condensed overview of the most important steps in Photography History.
To keep the list short, I’ll forget about technical/physical/chemical details for now and keep it simple…
1724 – First photo-sensitive compound (Johann Heinrich Schultz)
1826 – First permanent image ”View from the Window at Le Gras” (Nicéphore Niépce)
1834 – First permanent negative image (Henry Fox Talbot)
1837 – Daguerreotype process (Louis Daguerre)
1853 – First known portrait studio opens in Paris (Nada, Felix Toumachon)
1854 – “Carte-de-visite” photography creates a worldwide boom in portrait studios (Adolphe Disderi, Paris)
1861 – First colour photography system (colour-separation method, James Clerk-Maxwell)
1861-65 – First photo journalistic work (coverage of the american civil war, Mathew Brady)
1968 – Further developement of colour photography (Ducas de Hauron)
1871 – First dry plate process (Richard Leach Maddox)
1878 – Dry plates are now being manufactured commercially
1880 – Eastman Dry Plate Company, future Kodak, is founded (George Eastman)
1881 – First half-tone photograph in a daily newspaper, (New York Graphic)
1888 – First “Kodak” camera (featuring 20-foot roll of paper for 100 circular pictures)
1889 – First camera to support film-rolls (Kodak)
1900 – First box camera with roll-film (Kodak Brownie)
1907 – First (commercial) colour film (Lumiere brothers, France)
1917 – Nippon Kogaku KK. (future Nikon) founded in Tokyo
1921 – “Rayographs” (Man Ray) create basic idea for future X-rays
1924 – First high-quality 35mm camera “Leica” (Leitz)
1928: Introduction of “Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex”, 6x6cm image on rollfilm (Rollei)
1931: First Strobe Photography (Harold Doc Edgerton at MIT)
1932: Introduction of Technicolor for movies
1932: Group f/62 formed (by Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham)
1932: Founder of Kodak George Eastman writes: “My work is done. Why wait”, and commits suicide.
1934: Fuji Photo Film founded
1936: Introduction of Kodachrome, first colour film (developed by Exakta)
1947: Magnum picture agency founded (Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and David Seymour)
1948: First medium format camera for commercial use (Hasselblad)
1948: First “Instant film” (black/white, by Polaroid)
1949: First SLR with un-reversed viewfinder image (Contax S by Zeiss)
1963: First colour instant film (Polaroid)
1972: 110-format camera introduced by Kodak
1973: C-41 colour negative process replaces C-22
1975: First working CCD-based digital still camera (Steve Sasson at Kodak)
1985: First auto-focus SLR (“Maxxum” by Minolta)
1987: EOS system introduced (Canon)
1990: Adobe Photoshop 1.0 released (Adobe)
1992: PhotoCD format introduced (Kodak)
1999: Nikon D1 SLR introduced, featuring 2.7 megapixel and RRP $6000 (Nikon)
2001: Polaroid bankrupt
2004: Kodak stops production of film cameras
Well, and the rest we all know from recent memory.
