Early evolution

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The camera obscura (Latin for "dark chamber") was a device used long before photography as we know it existed. Dating back to ancient times, it worked by allowing light through a small hole into a dark box or room, projecting an upside-down image of the outside scene onto the opposite wall. Artists used it as a drawing aid during the Renaissance, but it didn’t record images—just helped with perspective.

In 1826, Nicéphore Niépce succeeded in producing the first permanent photograph: View from the Window at Le Gras. He used a technique called heliography.

After Niépce’s death, his collaborator Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype in 1839. The French government made the process free to the public, helping photography spread quickly across Europe and America. This period marks the official birth of photography—moving it from a scientific curiosity to a revolutionary new way of seeing and recording the world.

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Color photography

In 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot developed the calotype, using paper negatives, allowing for multiple prints — a big step toward modern photography. However, the process of producing a picture was still a lengthy task.

Over 40 years later, George Eastman, an American entrepreneur, recognized that photography was too complex and expensive for the general public. Therefore, he aimed to simplify the process, allowing anyone — not just professionals or chemists — to take photographs. In 1888, emerged from Eastman's dream, the first Kodak camera was released. The original Kodak consisted of:

Despite the invention of the Kodak camera, photography remained monochrome. Throughout the 19th century, inventors attempted to capture color, but the processes were often complex, expensive, and unreliable. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that a viable method for producing color images emerged. In 1907, the Lumière Brothers—Auguste and Louis—introduced the Autochrome Lumière, along with their innovations in motion picture technology. The Autochrome process used tiny grains of dyed potato starch (red, green, and blue-violet) as color filters, layered over a glass plate coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. When exposed to light and developed, this process produced a positive transparency image in vibrant color.

Building on the first milestone of color photography, Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes developed Kodachrome film for Kodak. It was a multi-layered, subtractive color film that marked a major advancement in photographic technology. Unlike Autochrome, Kodachrome used a negative-positive process, making reproduction and development more efficient. It produced images with vivid, saturated colors and offered significantly greater sharpness and longevity than any previous method.

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Digital era

The birth of Digital Imaging started in 1969. Willard Boyle and George E. Smith invented the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD). Although originally designed for memory storage, the CCD soon became the foundation of digital image sensors. These sensors convert light into digital data, replacing traditional film and enabling the first digital photographs.

Fujifilm, Kodak, Canon, and Sony released digital models for consumers by the late 1990s. These cameras had very low resolutions by today’s standards, but they marked a major leap from film dependency.

Developed from the first digital photographs, the first DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex), Nikon D1, was invented in 1999. DSLRs offer high image quality, manual control, and interchangeable lenses.

This system gives photographers a true optical view through the lens, accurate manual control, and the ability to change lenses—making it a favorite for professionals and enthusiasts alike.

After the rise of DSLRs, a new type of camera emerged in 2008: the mirrorless camera. The first model to launch was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. Unlike DSLRs, mirrorless cameras lack a mirror and optical viewfinder, relying instead on an electronic viewfinder (EVF) or the camera's screen for image preview. Without the bulky mirror mechanism, mirrorless cameras are typically smaller, lighter, and often faster for burst shooting and video. Since their debut, brands like Sony, Fujifilm, Canon, and Nikon have developed advanced mirrorless systems. By the mid-2010s, mirrorless cameras began to rival DSLRs as the dominant choice in photography. Today, both mirrorless and DSLR cameras remain popular among both amateur and professional photographers.

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Photography now

With the advancement of mobile devices, photographs from a smartphone are now closer to the ones produced with a DSLR. Moreover, the intelligent software and internet connectivity onboard a smartphone make editing and sharing effortless. Therefore, the popularity of DSLR cameras has tremendously decreased.

The trend in investing in mirrorless cameras seems to be more positive than DSLRs since people preferring lighter photographic equipment are leaning towards the latest technology of a mirrorless camera replacing bulkier DSLRs. However, generally, with the rise of smartphone as a convenient device for modern photography, we can see a decline in consumption of digital cameras nowadays.