The Pioneers
The first permanent photograph, which was accidentally destroyed, was produced in 1826 by a French inventor named Joseph Nicephore Niepce. That first photographic plate was made of polished pewter covered with a petroleum derivative which was then dissolved in white petroleum.
The coating on the plate hardened when exposed to light and the unhardened material could be washed away and the metal plate polished, leaving an exposed image. It may not seem like all that now, but in the day that was Star Wars.
Later work by Louis Deguerre refined the process with silver compounds on a copper plate called a daguerreotype.
At that time the French government, in a rare moment of governmental insight and largess, immediately bought the patent and made the process public domain.
One can only speculate what photography would like today if the patent system had kept control of the photographic process. Buying that patent and giving away the technology was an amazing gift to the world.
Film photography developed toward the later part of the 1800's and early 1900's as chemists experimented with photographic chemical processes on paper. In 1881 Eastman Kodak went on the market with the first Brownie. Photography had come to the masses with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest." Anyone could take a photograph and leave the messy chemical process to someone else. Modern black and white photography did not stray far from the process perfected by 1925.
At the same time chemists were experimenting with color photography by stacking emulsion layers sensitive to different components of the color spectrum. The first "packs" as they were called weren't particularly faithful to color but they did yield images of surprising detail.
In 1935 Kodak introduced the first modern "tripak", three layer color film called Kodachrome, developed by two people at the company who used to be classical musicians.
Once again Kodak pushed photography out to the masses with the "you press the button, we do the rest" for color photography.
It wasn't until 1935 that the process was adapted to 35mm film, the days when most photojournalists were still totting massive 4x5 black and white cameras like the Bush Pressman and the Crown Graphic Speed Graphic which took film holders that had the emulsion covered by a slide out card.
The first digital cameras weren't developed until the mid-60's and the first consumer digital camera, the Sony Mavica, hit the market in 1981. The Mavica recorded images to a mini disc and the images output to a television or color printer. It was a little better than video freeze frames but not much.
Today digital cameras are edging out film. As little as five years ago film was still superior for many applications, today digital imaging can actually surpass film in terms of clarity and detail.
Kodachrome is gone and there are no more labs to process it even if rolls exist in the bowels of an old freezer somewhere. In its day, Kodachrome was the standard. Today, it's a brand new digital world.
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