FIRST OF ALL,a camera, no matter how many automatic features it may have, is a lifeless piece of equipment until a person uses it. It then becomes a uniquely responsivetool--an extension of the photographer's eye and mind.Basically, there are 3 phrases in this history of photography. These are first black and white photography, secondly color films and last one, digital photography.Let`s describe the first point. Scientists had known for some time that certain silver compounds, called silver salts, would turn black when exposed to light. In England, Thomas Wedgwood, experimented with one of these silver halides-silver nitrate, to produce silhouettes. The pictures, however, were not permanent and turned black unless stored in the dark.In the early 19th century Joseph Niepce began to experiment with a novel graphic arts printing method called lithography. His work led him to further experiments using bitumen and oil of lavender. In 1827 he made the world's first surviving photograph from the window of a country home in France. It required an exposure, in bright sunlight, of eight hours.Meanwhile, Daguerre was experimenting with silver-iodide images. Hearing of Niepce's work, he contacted him, and in 1829 they became partners. During the next few years Daguerre, with Niepce's help, worked out the process that came to be known as daguerreotypy. It was a complicated procedure that demanded considerable skill.The daguerreotype's silver image was capable of rendering fine detail.

In the1880, an AmericanGeorge Eastman putflexible roll filmon the market, and in 1889 he introduced the first Kodak camera with the slogan, "You push the button and we do the rest."That completes the first part about the B/W photography.THAT`S ALL I WANT TO SAY ABOUT BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY . NOW LET`S TALK ABOUT THE COLOUR AGE. People had been trieded to make color photographs since 1860. It happend until 1906 that a film sensitive to all colors called "panchromatic film" was produced. You had to take three separate negatives and then use a special viewer so you could see all three slides layed on top of each other. The first color plates were invented in 1907 by Auguste and Louis Lumiere. They named it Autochrome. The colors appeared in delicate pastel.Technical developments in photographic equipment continued. Shortly before World War I, Oskar Barnack in Germany, invented a miniature camera that used perforated strips of 35-mm film. It was first introduced to the market in 1924 as the Leica. Many dismissed it as a toy for serious work, but others were delighted by its compact size and ability to make up to 36 exposures in rapid succession. This was the first camera inexpensive enough for the average person to afford. For the film was still large in comparison to today's 35mm film. It took until the late 1940s for 35mm film to become cheap enough for most people to afford.While the French introduced the permanent image, the Japanese brought easy control of their images to the photographer.In the 1950s ,Pentax, and Nikon introduced SLR-type cameras ,which allowed interchangeable lenses and other accessories.For the next 40 years SLR-type(SINGLE LENS REFLEX) cameras remained the camera of choice and many improvements were introduced to both the cameras and the film itself.In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous manufacturers worked on cameras that stored images electronically.The first of these were point and shoot cameras that used digital media instead of film.By 1991, Kodak produced the first digital camera advanced enough to be used successfully by professionals with 1,3MPThat`s all I want to say about this topic.Well, I WOULD LIKE TO FINISH with an observation .Photography will continue to evolveIt`s difficult to say something about the future of this.What do you think will be the next step?