History of the Pinhole Camera A pinhole lensless camera is a
light-tight box with a very fine round hole in one end and film or photographic
paper in the other. Light passes through the hole; an image is formed in the
camera.
The image-forming ability of a tiny hole is thought to
have been known thousands of years ago by nomadic tribes of North Africa, who
lived in animal skin tents. A pinhole in the tent would project an image of the
brilliant scene outside.
Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century
gave a clear description in his notebooks: "When the images of illuminated
objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room…you will see on
paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colours." "Who
would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the
universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as
these? What tongue will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none!
This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things.
Here the figures, here the colours, here all the images of every part of the
universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvellous!.
Ever since the Renaissance artists
turned to optics for assistance in solving perspective problems, and they found
the camera obscura "dark chamber" a mechanical aid of great value.
A scientist from Naples, Giovanni
Battista della Porta in the first edition of his book "Natural Magic"
in 1558, described the camera obscura in great detail. His demonstrations of
up-side down images astounded and mystified visitors.
It took centuries before the
technology existed to permit photographic pioneers in the early 19th century to
capture an image on a light sensitive surface. A Frenchman, Jacques Louis Mande
Daquerre is credited with putting it all together, but the first permanent
images made directly by the action of light were produced by the Frenchman
Joseph NicOphore Niepce an amateur scientist, inventor and artist. His first
"heliographs" were produced in 1822. The biggest problem at that time
was how to "fix" the image. The search for a method to fix the image
was discovered by astronomer and scientist Sir John Hershel in 1839. That led
to the development of photography.
Sir David Brewster, an English scientist,
was one of the first to make pinhole photographs. In the 1850’s in his book
"The Stereoscope" the word "pin-hole" was first coined.
Another Englishman Flinders Petrie, acclaimed the "father of
archaeology" in the 1880’s, took many pinhole photographs during his
excavations in Egypt. His photographs are exhibited in London museums.
The 20th century has been a time of brilliant
technology advances in the wonderful world of photography. We witness from the
Hubble space-telescope celestial beauty beyond our wildest dreams. Both NASA
and other high technology industries use sophisticated pinhole cameras in
special applications where lenses are not suitable. And now the latest in
high-tech, state-of-the-art digital cameras are leading the way into the 21st century.
With 160 years of photography and much more to come-what wonders lie ahead?
Right alongside of this technological leap will be over 5000 years of pinhole
history!