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Home , Box camera, DXOMARK, George Eastman, Kodacolor (filmmaking)

The Evolution of

190 years of inventors, their technology, and the impact of their ideas on society

Ken Frederick Jimmy Hemphill

Kingwood Photo Club August 16, 2016 Tonight’s Objective

Discuss the evolution of photography

… including the inventors, their technology, and the impact of their ideas on society Topics • Key technical challenges as photography evolved • Early photography – First – – Wet plate – Dry plate • Photography for the masses ( box ) • Revolutionary film cameras – Graflex Speed Graphic (portable high-quality) – Simplex (first 35 mm) – Leica (35 mm rangefinder) – Polaroid Land (first instant ) – F (35 mm SLR) – 500 C () – Kodak 100 (modern ) – Konica C35AF (first autofocus point & shoot) • Film technology • • Camera phones • Recent innovations • The impact of photography Key Technical Challenges As Photography Evolved How to … Obtain image without hiring artist/painter?

1800’s Create permanent photographic image? – Early technology yielded images that faded

Make copies of ? – & tintypes were “one-of-a-kind” images (i.e., no additional “prints”)

Eliminate need to make/expose/develop film within 15-minute period – Key characteristic of “wet plate” photography

Eliminate heavy, bulky photographic equipment – Early photography literally required a “pack horse” to transport equipment

Increase film sensitivity? – Early photography required exposures of several minutes

Increase resolution of photograph? – A trade-off with film (and later electronic sensor) sensitivity

Create camera that everyone (even a child) can use? Create photograph? Create “instant” (i.e., Polaroid-type) photograph? Today Create electronic image? Create electronic image “better” than film? First Photograph (ca 1824-1827)

Original Photograph

Pigeon House and Barn Nicéphore Niépce

• Taken with • Several-hour • “Film” was plate of polished pewter coated with tar Camera Obscura Daguerreotype (1837) First practical form of photography First publically announced photographic process (Louis Deguerre)

Process • “Film” is sheet of silver-plated copper polished to mirror-like brilliance • Sheet sensitized with iodide vapor, exposed in camera, developed with mercury vapor, then fixed with a salt solution

Advancements • Shorter exposure time than Niépce tar-based process (minutes rather than hours)

Drawbacks • Fragile surface – photos placed in cases • Mercury vapor very hazardous • Copies could not be made First Photograph of a Person (1838)

Boulevard de Temple Deguerrrotype by Louis Daguerre

• View of a busy street • 10-minute exposure time • Street and sidewalk traffic is invisible because of long exposure … except for two men near bottom left corner (one apparently having his boots polished by the other) that stayed in one place long enough to be visible Wet Plate (1851)

The state-of-the-art photographic technology of the mid Used by Mathew Brady & other professional photographers of his era

Process • Clear glass plate coated with very thin layer of iodized colloid • Coated plate dipped in silver nitrate solution to make it light sensitive • Plate exposed, developed and fixed before drying

Advancements • Large, high-resolution images • created, enabling ability to make prints

Drawbacks • Plates must be coated, exposed, and developed within 15-minute period • For professional use only due to large volume/weight of equipment and skill required to coat glass plates Dry Plate (1871) Basis for modern film-based photography

Process • Clear glass plate coated with gelatin emulsion of silver bromide • Plate exposed, developed, and fixed

Advancements • Eliminated need for photographers to travel with laboratory • Photographic plates were no longer time sensitive – plates could be bought, stored, exposed, and developed at any time • Dry plates could be manufactured in a factory, greatly reducing the cost of photography • Improved light sensitivity

Drawbacks • Glass plates fragile Photography for the Masses

George Eastman & Eastman Kodak Company

• founded Kodak in 1880 with objective of making photography accessible & affordable to everyone – The “Bill Gates” & “Steve Jobs” of his time in terms of establishing a new high-tech industry that revolutionized our lives – The “Henry Ford” of photography industry in terms utilizing mass production to make his products affordable

• Eastman's 4 Business Principles – Mass production at low cost – International distribution – Extensive advertising – Focus on the customer

• Eastman established one of 1st industrial research laboratories in United States, ensuring ongoing technology development Photography for the Masses “The Kodak” (1888) – original box camera Description: • $25 cost (~$650 adjusted for inflation) • 100 exposures • Paper-backed film • 2.5-inch diameter circular prints • $10 to print photos & reload camera • ~5200 manufactured

Very easy to use: • No camera settings to adjust - Fixed (58 mm) - Fixed, small (f/9) (for large DOF) - Fixed speed (~1/50 second) • Processing & printing services provided

Key Technology: • Machines for automatically coating film emulsions • Light, flexible film that could be rolled Film for “The Kodak” Box Camera Recent acquisitions of

1888 “stripper” film 1889 “transparent” film • Only known roll • One of 3 known rolls • Also used in 1st motion picture camera Photography for the Masses Kodak “” (1900) Camera that made photography for the masses possible • $1 cost • 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ negatives; transparent cellulose nitrate • 245,000 of original version manufactured; various versions made from 1900 to 1962 • To celebrate 50th anniversary of Kodak in 1930, 500,000 Brownie cameras distributed free to 12 year old children in North America • Ansel Adams’ first camera was a Brownie • Introduced concept of “”, film version of today’s “” Photography for the Masses

Kodak box camera advertising First Motion Pictures (1891)

George Eastman &

• Camera developed Thomas Edison (right) 70 mm film for “The Kodak” box camera was sliced to 35 mm and perforated for use in Edison • Flexible developed by George Eastman made motion pictures feasible Photography for the Masses

“What we do in our working hours determines what we have in this world. What we do in our play hours determines what we are.”

George Eastman May 1925 speech to Kodak employees Speed Graphic Camera (1912-1973)

Portable, high-quality camera

Iwo Jima (1945) Joe Rosenthal

• Manufactured by Graflex in Rochester, N.Y. from 1912-1973 • Standard press photographer camera until mid-1960’s • 4” x 5” plate film • Used to take all Pulitzer Prize winning photographs from 1942-1954 First 35mm Camera (c. 1913)

Origin of 35mm film for still cameras • Thomas Edison selected a film width of 35mm for his motion picture system

• Movie studios used large rolls of 35mm and made short leftover lengths available to camera manufacturers in early 1900’s

Simplex (1914) Multi Speed Shutter Company New York Leica Camera (1925)

Henri Cartier- Bresson’s first Leica

• First practical 35 mm camera - used standard cinema 35 mm film • Intended as a compact camera for • Beautifully engineered precision instruments that fit in a coat pocket • Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz. and many others have helped established the Leica as the camera for artful, Polaroid Land Camera (1948) Instant Photography 1948 Edwin Land markets 1st Polaroid camera 1963 Polaroid introduces instant color film 1973 Polaroid introduces SX-70 camera

Land Camera Model 95

SX-70 Nikon F Camera (1959)

Life magazine photographer Larry Burrows Died in 1971 when helicopter was shot down over Laos

• Revolutionary, state of the art camera system • Included many features introduced by other companies • Produced until 1973 - aspects of its design in all future Nikon SLRs • THE press photographer camera, particularly war correspondents Nikon F – Features introduced by others

Evolving Technology

internally activated automatic diahragm …

instant return mirror

interchangeable /focusing…

pentaprism

bayonet mounted interchanable

full-frame 35 mm SLR

1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 year introduced

The Nikon F also had interchangeable backs and viewfinder showing 100% of image

Contributors: Leica, Kine Exakta, Contax S, Exakta Varex, Asahiflex llb, Contax F Hasselblad 500 C Camera (1957)

Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong with Hasselblad Camera

• Landmark medium-format camera; variants produced until 2013 • Basis for Hasselblad's product line for the next sixty years • Renowned for high-quality construction, ruggedness, and sharp images • NASA began using Hasselblad cameras on space flights in 1962, including Apollo 11 moon landing Kodak Instamatic 100 Camera (1963-1970)

Photo by Ken Frederick

Instamatic 100 photo of World Instamatic 100 Camera & Film Cartridge Globe at NYC World’s Fair (1965)

• With fixed , aperture and focus, continued tradition of Kodak's earlier Brownie cameras, providing simple snapshot camera anyone could use

• Revolutionary cartridge film design eliminated task of loading camera by threading film onto camera spool, then hoping the film “catches”

• 50 million manufactured First Point-and-Shoot, Autofocus Camera (1977)

Konica C35AF

• First with “revolutionary” features now standard in point-and-shoot cameras - Autofocus - Electronically-programmed aperture (f/2.8 to f/22) & shutter speed (1/60, 1/125, and 1/250 second) - Built-in pop-up • $283 cost • Inspired competitors to design similar cameras (e.g., Canon Sure Shot) Film Technology

Color photography was attempted as early as 1840’s, but was not commercialized until nearly a century later

1935 Kodak slide film • Developed by two professional musicians (Godowsky & Mannes) • First commercial color film • 3 layers of emulsion, each layer recording one of 3 primary (red, green, and blue) • ISO 16 • Archival quality 1941 Kodak negative film 1959 Kodak slide film Film Technology

Color photography was attempted as early as 1840’s, but was not commercialized until nearly a century later “God and Man” 1935 Kodak Kodachrome slide film • Developed by two professional musicians (Godowsky & Mannes) • First commercial color film • 3 layers of emulsion, each layer recording one of 3 primary colors (red, green, and blue) • ISO 16 • Archival quality 1941 Kodak Kodacolor negative film 1959 Kodak Ektachrome slide film Film Technology The science and technology of film was highly evolved at the beginning of the digital photography era

Undeveloped Developed

Kodacolor II Film Cross-Sections

• Up to 17 emulsion layers • Total emulsion thickness less than half width of human hair Film Technology “T-grains” were one of the last major film advancements prior to the digital photography era

Microscopic View of Kodak TMAX 400-2 Film Emulsion

• “Normal” light sensitive silver halide crystals/grains are spherical • T-grains are tabular, with the high surface area resulting in higher light sensitivity (i.e., higher ISO) for a given grain concentration First (1975)

• Invented at Kodak by electrical engineer Steve Sasson • 1978 patent awarded for “Electronic Still Camera” • Size of a toaster; weighed 8 pounds • 0.01 megapixel CCD sensor • Black & white • Image storage on digital cassette tape • Image displayed on TV screen; no prints Evolution of Digital Photography

1975 1986 1990 1997 2000 2004

1st digital consumer camera 1-megapixel camera

1st consumer- st 1 consumer level DSLR digital camera

1st megapixel sensor 1st cell phone camera Evolution of Digital Photography

1990

Dycam Model 1 • 0.077 megapixels (320 x 240) • Black & white images • ISO 200 • Optical viewfinder only • One button: the shutter release • Internally stored 32 photos on volatile memory • Flash activated from computer via provided • $995 in 1990

1st consumer digital camera Evolution of Digital Photography

1997

Kodak DC200 • 1 megapixels (1152 x 864) • Resolution to print 5” x 7” photos • ISO 140 • 1.8” color LCD display • Came with 4MB CF card for storage of up to 60 photos

“When [the CF card is] full, simply remove it, insert a new one, and keep shooting. It’s like a reusable, Consumer 1-megapixel camera digital roll of film for your camera”. Excerpt form Kodak’s DC200 description Evolution of Digital Photography

2000

Sharp J-Phone • Manufactured by Sharp • Sold through Japanese carrier J-Phone • 0.1 megapixels CMOS sensor • 256-color display • Capable of instantly e-mailing photos • $500 cost • Not a “sensation”

1st cell phone camera Cell Phone Photograph

Modern cell phone cameras can produce high-quality photos

Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Jerusalem Taken by “casual” photographer with iPhone 4s

photo: Barbara Hemphill Sensor ISO Improvements

highest DXOMark low-light ISO rating 4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500 "usable" ISO 1,000

500

0 Small Sensor Four Thirds APS Full Frame

• Sensor size can significantly improve “usable” ISO performance • Full-Frame cameras are capable of amazing “high ISO” performance • Ability to take acceptable images at higher ISOs improves both low-light and action (high shutter speed) photographs How much better is the next technology?

ISO for film, digital, and cell phone buying "our last digital camera" 40 3,000 4,500 35 4,000 2,500 3,500 30 3,000 2,000 25 2,500 2,000 20 1,500 1,500 15 "usable" ISO "usable" usable ISO megapixels 1,000 1,000 10 500 10 65 500 0 5 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 0 0 year d70 d200 d700 D800 2004 2006 2008 2012 digital film cell phone megapixels ISO

• We have both bought our “last” digital camera several times • “Good enough” does not stay good enough, long enough • Our “old” Nikon D200s were excellent, revolutionary cameras and we took over 100,000 high-quality images with them Camera Comparison

Nikon D70 Kidzoom – Fisher Price / Vtec

• 6.1 megapixel – interchangeable • 1.3 megapixel - 4x digital zoom • No internal memory • 128 MB internal memory • Uses Compact Flash memory • micro SD slot for memory expansion • No in-camera editing • In-camera editing • No video recording • Video recording with sound • Compact Flash memory • PC and Mac compatible • No games included • 3 games included • $999.99 in 2004 – not on Amazon • $41.27 – Amazon 4.1 stars Exponential Growth in Photography

• 55% of all photos taken before 1960 were of babies • 20th century was “Golden Age” of film photography, peaking at amazing 85 billion photos in 2000 (approximately 2,500 photos per second)

• 2.5 billion people in world today have a digital camera (out of 7 billion population) • Over 3.5 trillion photos taken to date • 10% of all photos ever taken were taken in last 12 months What happens to all the pictures?

• 70 billion photos are expected to be uploaded to Facebook this year, which will be about 20% of photos taken during year • Facebook’s photo collection has staggering 140 billion photos, which is over 10,000 times larger than that of Library of Congress – equivalent to size of Texas compared to 60% size of Woodlands • More than 3,500 images are added to Facebook every second

Billions of Photographs Facebook 140 other Photobucket 10 Picasa 7 Flickr 6 Instagram 0.4 Library of Congress 0.01 Cell Phone Camera Usage

Saw this on the internet. Can it be true?

“It’s no secret that the has cannibalized digital camera sales. Market research firm IDC reports that smartphone sales topped 1 billion in 2013, up 38 percent year over year. CIPA (the Camera & Imaging Products Association) shows a 36 percent drop in digital camera sales over the same period: Shipments plummeted from around 98 million in 2012 to 63 million units in 2013, with the biggest losses coming among mid- and low-priced models.”

PC World - Aug 19, 2014 Selfie Phenomenon

President Obama with British & Denmark Prime Ministers (2013) Professional photographer Rick Guidotti (2014)

2002 First known “Selfie” taken by drunk Australian; posted in online forum

2013 “Selfie” added to online Oxford dictionary “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam The Selfie Stick and shared via social media.” Recent Innovations

• Image stabilization - Enables hand-held photos at slower shutter speeds • Mirror less cameras - Thinner, lighter camera with less moving parts • Light field photography (Lytro) - Ability to shift the focus point of an image after exposure - Early stage of development

• Built-in Wi-Fi Sony NEX - Transfers photos wirelessly to computer • Built-in GPS - Records exact photo location on image file • In-camera editing - Rotation - Cropping - Color - HDR

• DSLR 1080P & 4K HD video capability 1st Generation Lytro - In use for select scenes of major motion pictures The Evolution of Photography 190 years of inventors, their technology, and the impact on society

• The magic of the still photograph endures

• The 20th century was the century of film-based photography - Generated a photo-journalism revolution

• Digital replaced film photography during the first decade of this century - Key component of the internet information revolution

• Cameras will continue to decrease in size and improve in image quality

• New camera technology will replace existing technology in ways that we can not even begin to imagine

• George Eastman created photography for the masses, but even he would be amazed at the extent to which his vision has became a reality. He would also be the first to embrace the challenges and opportunities of new technology. BACKUP Bibliography 500 Cameras, 170 Years of Photographic Innovations Todd Gustavson, Eastman House Technology Curator Fall River Press (2011)