The first cameras were large enough to accommodate one or more people, and over time they evolved into increasingly compact models. The images produced by these early cameras could only be preserved by manually tracing them, as no photographic processes had been invented yet. By the late 17th century, portable camera obscura devices in tents and boxes had come into use as drawing tools. The earliest documented explanation of this principle comes from Han Chinese philosopher Mozi (approximately 470 to 391 BC), who correctly argued that the inversion of the camera obscura image is a result of light traveling in straight lines from its source.ĭating back to around 1550, lenses were used in the openings of walls or closed window shutters in dark rooms to project images, aiding in drawing.
It projects an inverted image (flipped left to right and upside down) of a scene from the other side of a screen or wall through a small aperture onto a surface opposite the opening.
The camera obscura, the precursor of the photographic camera, is a natural optical phenomenon named after its Latin translation, 'dark room'. Further information: Camera obscura An artist utilizing an 18th-century camera obscura for image tracing
