Talk:History of the camera

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Confusing

"The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before technology caught up to the point where this was possible."

How was the technology not possible if Zahn already did it?

or to state it another way:

It doesn't say Zahn drew plans for a portable, practicle camera- it says he built one. You would assume that that means the camera worked. Then how could the technology for his invention not be there?

Bantosh 22:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Zahn's invention was a portable camera obscura which merely projected an image onto a screen. In theory, it could have been used for photography had a means of recording the image been available. However, this development did not occur until the middle of the 19th century. Camerafiend 08:38, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, so would it be correct if it read:

• "The first camera obscura that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, but it would be almost 150 years before technology for recording an image in this manner was possible."

Bantosh 16:04, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

That is correct, although I think "before technology for recording an image in this manner was possible" sounds a little awkward. How about

The first camera that was small and portable enough to be practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685, though it would be almost 150 years before such an application was possible.

I think this makes it sufficiently clear that it was the process of photography that was not yet possible, not the camera itself. Camerafiend 08:42, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and changed the text, I think it is sufficiently clear now. Camerafiend 02:22, 20 December 2006 (UTC)