1839 - Daguerrotype Camera

The Daguerrotype Camera was developed by a man named Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphorre Niéce. They were both inventors, and discovered that if a copper plate coated with silver iodine was exposed to the light in a camera, fumed with mercury vapour and made permanent by a solution of salt, that a permanent image would be created.

Pros:

-          Very good, clear image

-          Unlimited dynamic range

Cons:

-          Uses a very poisonous chemical (mercury) to produce the image

-          Take 3 hours to hand polish one plate