Johann Heinrich Schulz discovered in 1727 that silver nitrate would change color when exposed to light, which was an early step towards developing the first photographs. Joseph Niepce then developed the camera obscura in 1814 to take the first photo, though the process was imperfect. In 1837, Louis Daguerre invented the Daguerreotype process which reduced exposure time to just 30 minutes and produced images that did not fade. Multiple copies of photographs became possible in 1841 when William Henry Talbot invented the Calotype process.

1. 1727 The discovery that silver nitrate changes
Johann Heinrich Schulz discovered that a substance called silver nitrate would change colour when exposed to light. way for the first pictures to be taken and processed.
1814 The camera obscura is developed
Joseph Niepce developed the camera obscura and took the first photo with it. It wasn't ideal, though, because it exposure to make a picture, and the picture faded with time.

2. 1837 The Daguerreotype was invented
Louis Daguerre invented a new way to take pictures. It only needed 30 minutes of light exposure, and the image time.
1841 Making multiple copies possible
William Henry Talbot developed the Calotype process. This made it possible to make multiple copies of the same

3. 1851 Taking pictures gets easier
With the new Collodion process, cameras only needed a few seconds of light exposure to make a picture.
1871 Film is made easier to handle
Up until this time pictures had to be developed immediately after being taken. Richard Leach Maddox invented the silver bromide process, which made it possible to take a picture and develop it later.

4. 1888 The invention of the roll-film camera
George Eastman invented the first roll-film camera.
1948 The Polaroid camera is marketed
The Polaroid allowed people to take a photo and have it developed immediately, right from the camera.

5. 1963 Coloured film is introduced
Polaroid came out with the first coloured film.
1980 The first consumer camcorder is released
Sony put out the first consumer camcorder, allowing people to record their memories in real time.
1974 The first digital camera is developed
The Sasson Company built the first digital camera.

6. 1984 The first digital camera is marketed
Canon put out the first digital camera for the public, which was later improved by Pixar.
1990 The first camera phones (1990's)
The camera phone technology was first used in Japan, but it quickly spread around the world.
2001 The Easy Share camera comes into play
Kodak put out their Easy Share digital camera, which made it easy to snap pictures and download them to the computer.
2012 Wireless cameras are developed
Kodak put out cameras that didn't have to be connected to a computer in order to download and share the pictures.