Inventions Study Guide

First iPhone

2007; The First ever of its kind; It had the internet, you could browse the web, send emails, listen to music and watch videos and make calls. It brought a camera to people's pockets something unheard of before.

Color photography

1861; First photo of this kind, taken on May 17, 1861; Capturing a scene three times by using three separate black-and-white photographic exposures, once through each primary color filter (red, green, blue); Created one photograph by combining the three images through projection or other optical techniques; Highly important in the expression of emotions and other aesthetics in modern-day photography.

First Camcorder

1967; 1st compact video recording device that could be easily operated with one hand; Used VHS-C tapes to allow people to record videos in an easy-to-use format; First publicly available portable video camera; Uses cassette tapes to capture video and audio; Made videography available to the public.

First Digital Camera

1975; Converted light into an electronic signal, then digitized and stored the image on a digital cassette tape; Allowed photos to be developed without the long process of a dark room and film, paving the way for phone cameras and more accessible photography.

35 mm film camera

1913; Pioneered by Oskar Barnack at Leitz, leading to the revolutionary, compact Leica camera in 1925, which made photography commercially successful for photojournalists and amateurs by using a horizontal frame and smaller, portable bodies.

Daguerreotype

1839; Silver-plated copper plate, known for its mirror-like surface. Created highly detailed images, but photographs could not be reproduced; each image was unique.

Calotype

1840; Created by Henry Fox Talbot; Early photographic process; created a negative image allowing for multiple prints; required very long exposure times and lacked detail. The paper negative was coated with chemicals, making it light sensitive.

Camera Obscura

4th century BC; A dark chamber that has a small hole on one side. When light emits through the opening, the outside world is projected upside down on the opposite wall. It was originally used as a drawing aid.

Kodak Brownie Box Camera

1900; It was revolutionary and inexpensive, costing only $1. It made photography accessible and affordable for people. It was also very simple which encouraged regular people to try photography.

Iphone 17 pro max

2025; Heat-forged aluminum unibody enclosure that maximizes performance, battery capacity, and durability; Equivalent 200 mm focal length, the 8x optical-quality zoom makes this the longest iPhone Telephoto ever; 18MP Center Stage front camera; A19 Pro chip; Battery life all-time high; eSIM.

Earthrise Photo

1968; Taken by William Anders. The photo shows the small blue Earth rising above the gray lunar surface. One of the first times people saw the Earth from space. Started an environmental revolution and inspired space exploration.

The Cyanotype

1842; A unique genre of camera that allows pictures to be a Prussian Blue; Uses chemicals (salts) and UV light to make white on blue prints.

The Invention of Photoshop

1987; Created by Thomas and John Knoll; Powerful image creation, graphic design, and photo editing software; Significantly advanced the stylistic part of photography and editing abilities, leading to a more individualized photographic community.

The first Polaroid camera

1948; Invented by Edwin Land; A handheld camera that instantly prints the photo once you take it; no need to go through the darkroom process.

First Camera Phone

2000; First commercially available was the Sharp J-SH04, released in Japan in November 2000, revolutionized mobile communication. Earlier, in 1999, Kyocera launched the VP-210, while in 1997, engineer Philippe Kahn developed a version of this technology.

The Wet-Collodion Process

1851; Invented by Frederick Scott Archer; 19th-century photographic technique using glass or metal plates coated with light-sensitive chemicals; Produced highly detailed glass negatives and positive images.

The First Photograph

1826-1827; Created using heliography and the camera obscura by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; Depicts the view outside of Niépce’s workroom window on his estate, Le Gras, near Chalon-sur-Saône, France.

Infrared Camera

Unknown; The Kodak was a camera that had the first electronic shutter and its own cartridge, making it very easy to take photos.