A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DThe Camera Obscura : Aristotle to Zahn
Camera obscura (||Cam"e*ra ob*scu"ra) [LL. camera chamber + L. obscurus, obscura, dark.] (Opt.)
1. An apparatus in which the images of external objects, formed by a convex lens or a concave mirror, are thrown on a paper or other white surface placed in the focus of the lens or mirror within a darkened chamber, or box, so that the outlines may be traced.Websters Dictionary, 1913 http://www.bibliomania.com
The first casual reference [to the Camera Obscura] is by Aristotle (Problems, ca 330 BC), who questions how the sun can make a circular image when it shines through a square hole. Euclid's Optics (ca 300 BC), presupposes the camera obscura as a demonstration that light travels in straight lines. Egnacio Danti in commentary on his translation of Euclid's Optica (1573), adds a description of the camera obscura. By this time knowledge of the camera obscura is already firmly established in Italy, with the availability of Giovanni Battista della Porta's Magica Naturalis (1558), based on earlier books (Cesare Caesariano's translation and commentary to Vitruvius's Architecture (1521), Francesco Maurolico's Theorameta de Lumine et Umbra (1521), Erasamus Reinholt in commentary in translation of Plubach's Theoricae Novae Planatarum 1542, and others). Porta's second edition of Magia Naturalis (1591) includes a lens for the camera. This had been suggested earlier by Roger Bacon, and was in use by others in the 16th century. Porta popularized the camera obscura, which was instantly in use with astronomers: Kepler, solar observations, 1600, including the transit of Mercury in 1606; Fabricius, sunspots, 1611. Kepler coined the term "camera obscura." the article continues... Porta's Natural Magic was published in English in 1658. In the same year Kepler's design for a camara obscura drawing tent was available in English. The reflex box camera (using a mirror to invert the image) is described in Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus, 1658 by Johann Zann, as well as the use of a telephoto lens (Galilean). This was used also by Kepler in 1600 - 1610 (Dioptrice, 1611). The telephoto lens design has not changed to today. A Camera Obscura designed for viewing (and drawing) is described by Robert Boyle in On the Systematic or Cosmical Qualities of Things (1670), which includes a focussing front, a lens, and viewing back. Robert Hooke describes the opaque projector in Philosophical Transactions 1668. By the beginning of the 18th century the viewing camera obscura was commercially for sale in London (see John Harris, Lexicon Technicum, 1704), known at the time as 'Scioptricks', after the lens which was known as a 'scioptric ball.' and closes... Abu Ali Al-hasen Ibn Alhasen, mathematician, born in Basra, d. 1038 Cairo, claimed he could control the inundations of the Nile, for which caliph Hakim ordered him to Cairo in 1015 or 1017. Realizing his abilities as civil engineer were less than his skill as a mathematician, he feigned insanity to save his head. Until Hakim died in 1021, Alhazen spent his time at the library of Alexandria, writing on geometry, optics, perspective and the camera obscura. Translated into Latin in 1270 and printed as Opticae Thesaurus Alhazani in 1572. MSS at Paris, Oxford, Leyden. An additional MS at the Vatican Library is annotated by Lorenzo Ghiberti of the Florence Baptistry doors (1378 - 1455). Earlier MSS may have existed, for Roger Bacon writes a[bout] optics and the camera obscura before 1266. Alhazen is the first to show how an image is formed on the eye, using the camera obscura as an analog. Alhazen states (in the Latin translation), and with respect to the camera obscura, "Et nos non inventimus ita", we did not invent this. http://www.blight.com/~jno/reclaim/ also... The camera obscura (Latin for 'dark room') was the ancestor of the modern camera. The camera was actually a large room that would be entered by the user. Light entering a small hole in a darkened room produces an inverted image on the opposite wall. Used initially to view solar eclipses, by the seventeenth century the process was made portable by fitting a lens to one end of a box and using a sheet of glass at the opposite end to view the image. A mirror inserted inside at a 45 degree angle would reverse the image, giving the viewer corrected orientation. http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/art/arh115/glossary.html
 Camera Obscura, Reinerus Gemma-Frisius, 1544 Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography A larger image is also available
For centuries, the technique was used for viewing eclipses of the Sun without endangering the eyes and, by the 16th century, as an aid to drawing; the subject was posed outside and the image reflected on a piece of drawing paper for the artist to trace. Portable versions were built, followed by smaller and even pocket models; the interior of the box was painted black and the image reflected by an angled mirror so that it could be viewed right side up.
Latin for 'dark chamber,' and the earliest versions, dating to antiquity, the camera obscura consisted of a small darkened room with light admitted through a single tiny hole. The result was that an inverted image of the outside scene was cast on the opposite wall, which was usually whitened.
Camera Obscura (L. dark chamber), an aid to painting, it consists of a darkened box into which the artist climbed with a small aperture in one wall through which light passes. This image is projected, inverted, onto the wall opposite. Later more sophisticated models added a lens to the aperture, increasing its affinity to the human eye or the photographic camera. Its strength as an aid to drawing resides in its ability to distil onto a flat surface the confused visual information which strikes the eye. It was much used by Dutch still-life and by topographical painters. Eminent practitioners include the Dutch genre painter Vermeer in the 17th century and the Veduta painter Canaletto in the 18th century.
The term camera obscura is taken from the Latin and means "dark room". Invented in the sixteenth century, the camera obscura is made out of an arrangement of lenses and mirrors in a box that is darkened, The machine permits accuracy in a drawing, often of topographical detail. When looking through the lens of a camera obscura, the view presented is actually reflected through the mirrors onto the paper or cloth and allows the artist to draw by tracing the outline. Canaletto used one to study his vedute (city views) prior to painting. Carlevaris also made use of the machine for his paintings. It is often quite easy to recognize drawings made using this method, because of the distortion of the edges. A camera lucida is a more complicated instrument that uses a prism. There are examples of both in the Science Museum. http://www.jonessquare.com/art-square/eoa1/dictfive.html
Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) (alt: Anastasius) in a book written in 1646, described one [a camera obscura] which consisted of an outer shell with lenses in the centre of each wall, and an inner shell containing transparent paper for drawing; the artist needed to enter by a trapdoor.
 Camera Obscura, Athanasius Kircher, 1646 Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
Other versions [of the camera obscura] also appeared. Sedan chairs were converted, and tent-type cameras were also in use - even up the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. Then smaller, portable ones were made. Thus the camera obscura, as it came to be known, became a popular aid to sketching. Robert Leggat: A History of Photography
 Portable 'Tent' Camera Obscura, Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), 1620 Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
 Reflex Camera Obscura, Johannes Zahn, 1685 Originally from Zahn, J., 'Oculus Artificialis', (1685 - 1686) Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
 Sedan Chair Camera Obscura, William Jakob s'Gravesande, 1711 A larger image is also available Originally from s' Gravesande, W. J., An Essay on Perspective, 1711 Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
 Camera Obscura, Georg Friedrich Brander (1713 - 1785), 1769 Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
Camera Obscura, Georg Friedrich Brander (1713 - 1785), 1769
(cross section detail) Gernsheim, H., The Origins of Photography
 Camera Obscura
 Camera Obscura, 1817 © Jack and Beverly Wilgus The Magic Mirror of Life
 Camera Obscura, c 1820 English origin. Size: 9" X 4 1/4" X 4 1/4" © Jack and Beverly Wilgus The Magic Mirror of Life
The final development of the Camera Obscura was as a mass entertainment medium. Large 'Cameras' holding some 10-15 persons were built (often at seaside holiday resorts and outdoor places of entertainment, amusement parks and the like) and the image, transferred from the tower sited lens arrangement, was projected onto a large circular 'table like' 'screen' around which an 'audience' could gather. Being 'live' the image was in colour and it moved and certainly a 'pre' cinema experience in the late 1800's. Many of these 'Cameras' still exist today and this final development of the camera obscura is extensively detailed on the site The Magic Mirror of Life: by Jack and Beverly Wilgus.
 'Famous Camera Obscura at Santa Monica, Calif'. c.1900 Postcard from a recent auction on eBay
 The Camera Obscura at Central Park, 1877 Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, 1877 and a recent auction on eBay.
From the investigations of Paul T. Burns on his site The Complete History of Cinematography A Beginning? - 5th c. B.C. Mohists knew and taught the linearity of light rays. They knew that light travels in straight lines as did the Greeks at or around the same time. Philosophers Mo Ti (470-391 B.C) also known as Mozu, Motze, Motse, Micius and Mo-Tzu and Chuang Chou (c.369-286 B.C.) commented on the property of shadows. Mo Ti recorded the observation of an inverted image through a pinhole and talks of the "collecting place" (aperture). He also explains why the image is inverted and uses the analogy of the oar in the rowlock. Mohists knew and taught that objects reflect light and called it "shining forth".
Documented in the 'Shih Chi' and 'Chien Han Shu' of the Han period (ch.28, p24) [Trans., Chavannes, vol.3, p470] is the shadowplay by the magician called Shao Ong who made the spirit (it would appear) of a dead concubine appear to the Emperor Wu. This sort of shadowful illusion was repeated many times throughout Chinese culture and all of Asia.
Roman poet and naturalist Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus c.98-55 B.C.) combines science and poetry in his De Rerum Natura (On The Nature Of Things, T. L. Carus, IV, 768ff) when he refers to some sort of projection show or dream image in poetic form. Perhaps a shadowplay or something similar to that of Plato. It had been suggested that the work has been incorrectly interpreted.
Heron of Alexandria (also known as Hero) describes in Peri Automatopoietkes (Constructing Automaton Theatres) "phantom mirrors" and "mirror writing." Hero also writes in his 'De Speculis' (the oldest extant Greek writing on mirrors) about concave, convex and plane mirrors. His 'Caoptrica'explains the rectilinear propagation of light and the law of reflection.
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus fl.127-145 A.D.) accepts Aristotle's view that objects emit light. Ptolemy also writes his Almagest on optics and the universe and speaks of refraction, reflection, persistence of vision and "stereoscopic projection."
The ascending convection of hot air from a lamp caused animals and creatures to appear to move naturally in Ting Huan's "Pipe Which Makes Fantasies Appear." This is perhaps the first account of the marriage of both illumination and movement, created by the same source (lamp). The Complete History of Cinematography
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) observed the crescent shape of the partially eclipsed sun projected on the ground through the holes of a strainer, and the gaps between the leaves of a tree. He also noticed that the smaller the hole, the sharper the image. In modern cameras, this is analogous to the diaphragm. Eastman Kodak Timeline of Photography
The Arab mathematician Alhazen first described the magnifying effect of simple lenses in his Book of Optics. He also deduced the linearity of light and told how to 'capture' an eclipse of the sun using a Camera Obscura, from which today's camera takes its name and principle.
The Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan (10th Century A.D.), also known by his Latin name Alhazen, described the Camera Obscura in his writings. Alhazen stressed the significance of the relationship between the size of the aperture and the sharpness of the image. Manuscripts of his observations reside in the India Office Library, London. Eastman Kodak Timeline of Photography
Further from the investigations of Paul T. Burns... Camera Obscura - c.10th c.A.D. Yu Chao Lung builds miniature pagodas to observe the pinhole images through a hole onto a screen and therefore learns of the divergence of light rays using a camera obscura.
Shen Kua talks of the camera obscura's inverted image, the collecting place, burning mirrors and the focal point.
Robert Grosseteste (1175-1253) a contemporary of Roger Bacon used plano-convex lenses.
Further examples of illumination and movement are mentioned in the Meng Liang Lu written by the Chinese scholars Chiang Khuei and Fang Cheng during the Sung dynasty. In poetic form they describe "how the horses prance around after the lamp is lit." Similar entries tell "how the smoke gives life and spirit to the figures in the "lanthorn" where they seem to walk, turn, ascend and descend." Clearly, motion is represented when it describes horses "running", vessels "sailing", and armies "marching". These celebrated incidents in Chinese culture are referred to by both Hangchow (1275 A.D.) who also talks of the "flying dragons", and Gabriel Magalhaens (c.1650).
Roger Bacon (1214-1294), proponent of medieval science writes in his treatise De Multiplicatione Specierum (Book II, ch.viii) and Perspectiva, the principle of the camera obscura. He talks of observing the view outside a dark room, and eclipses by way of a ray of light passing through an aperture and projecting itself. Bacon speaks of the camera obscura effect but does not describe the apparatus.
French astronomer Guillaume De Saint-Cloud (c.1290) writes in an almanac the impairment of the eyes if the eclipse (in this case June 5, 1285) is viewed for too long. In some cases, spectators complained of near blindness for several days, others for hours. This manuscript was dated five years later in 1290. In order to eliminate this loss of vision, Saint-Cloud went on to explain the use of the camera obscura for viewing the sun during an eclipse. The camera obscura continued to be a useful tool for watching eclipses. Like Archimedes, Saint-Cloud talked of the power of lenses and mirrors.
Arnaud De Villeneuve (1238-1314) Also known as Arnold of Villanova, was a practising physician and wrote on alchemy. A magician and showman in his leisure time, Villeneuve used the camera obscura to present "moving shows" or "cinema" by placing his audiences in the darkened room and would have the actors perform outside. The image of the performance would be cast on the inside wall. Villeneuve would often enact wars, or the hunting of animals with the actual noises of such, which would be heard from inside. The Complete History of Cinematography
Around 1519, Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) wrote:
"When images of illuminated objects ... penetrate through a small hole into a very dark room ... you will see [on the opposite wall] these objects in their proper form and color, reduced in size ... in a reversed position, owing to the intersection of the rays". also... Later in the 16th century, Giovani Battista della Porta of Naples wrote in his book Natural Magic (1558):
"If you cannot paint, you can by this arrangement [camera obscura] draw [outlines of images] with a pencil. You will have then only to lay on the colors".also... Even people who could paint, like Canaletto (1697-1768) and Holland's Jan Vermeer (1632-75), were believed to have used the Camera Obscura as an aid, although there is no proof.
The forerunner of the camera was the Camera Obscura, a dark chamber or room with a hole (later a lens) in one wall through which images of objects outside the room were projected on the opposite wall. The principle was probably known to Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. The Italian scientist and writer Giambattista della Porta, late in the 16th century, demonstrated and described in detail the use of a camera obscura with a lens. By the 18th century artists commonly used various types of Camera Obscura to trace accurate images from nature. These devices still depended on the artist's drawing skills, however, and the search for a method to reproduce images completely mechanically continued.
The Camera Obscura (Latin for Dark room) was a dark box or room with a hole in one end. If the hole was small enough, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall. Such a principle was known by thinkers as early as Aristotle (c.300 BC). It is said that Roger Bacon invented the camera obscura just before the year 1300 (1267 - observed eclipses in a 'natural room' http://photoscope.com), but this has never been accepted by scholars; more plausible is the claim that he used one to observe solar eclipses. The earliest record of the uses of a camera obscura can be found in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). At about the same period Daniel Barbaro, a Venetian, recommended the camera as an aid to drawing and perspective. He wrote:
"Close all shutters and doors until no light enters the camera except through the lens, and opposite hold a piece of paper, which you move forward and backward until the scene appears in the sharpest detail. There on the paper you will see the whole view as it really is, with its distances, its colours and shadows and motion, the clouds, the water twinkling, the birds flying. By holding the paper steady you can trace the whole perspective with a pen, shade it and delicately colour it from nature".In the mid sixteenth century Giovanni Battista della Porta (1538-1615) published what is believed to be the first account of the possibilities as an aid to drawing. It is said that he made a huge "camera" in which he seated his guests, having arranged for a group of actors to perform outside so that the visitors could observe the images on the wall. The story goes, however, that the sight of up-side down performing images was too much for the visitors; they panicked and fled, and Battista was later brought to court on a charge of sorcery! Though Battista's account is wrapped up in a study of the occult, it is likely that from that time onwards many artists will have used a camera obscura to aid them in drawing, though either because of the association with the occult, or because they felt that in some way their artistry was lessened, few would admit to using one. Several are said to have used them; these include Giovanni Canale - better known as Canaletto (1697- 1768), Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and Paul Sandby (1725-1809), a founding member of the Royal Academy. Though some, including Joshua Reynolds, warned against the indiscriminate use of the camera obscura, others, notably Algarotti, a writer on art and science and a highly influential man amongst artists, strongly advocated its use in his Essays on Painting (1764):
"the best modern painters among the Italians have availed themselves of this contrivance; nor is it possible that they should have otherwise represented things so much to the life... Let the young painter, therefore, begin as early as possible to study these divine pictures"...."Painters should make the same use of the Camera Obscura, which Naturalists and Astronomers make of the microscope and telescope; for all these instruments equally contribute to make known, and represent Nature."About the same time, the lens was being developed. Once again Roger Bacon's name is associated with this; some have claimed that it was he who invented spectacles. Gerolomo Cardano (1501-1576), an Italian mathematician, introduced a glass disc in place of a pinhole in his camera, and Barbaro also used a convex lens. Why the name lens? It is claimed that because Italian lenses were by-convex, they seemed to resemble the brown lentils the used to make soup - so the lens came from the Latin for lentil.
The camera obscura, or dark chamber , was popular with prominent scientists, artists, and wealthy people during the mid-1600s. It was often highlighted by travelling natural magic shows which played to public audiences. The camera obscura worked by allowing light from a small hole to enter a dark room. An image from the outside was projected onto a wall or surface parallel to the plane of focus. The artist placed paper on the surface to sketch or trace the image. In more complex versions, a mirror was used to re invert the inverted image and lenses were added to aid in focusing. A prominent Dutch physicist and astronomer, Constantijn Huygens (1596-1678) introduced and demonstrated the camera obscura to many Dutch artists. The camera obscura is frequently associated with the works of Jan Vermeer a Dutch artist, born in 1632, and often called Vermeer van Delft to distinguish him from an earlier Jan Vermeer. He lived in the town of Delft his entire life. Vermeer, a painstaking worker, produced only about 40 known paintings. His paintings were known for their soft light and slightly blurred outlines. His work is also associated with the camera obscura, although recently his use of this device has come into question. The perspective of his paintings was so precise, however, that computer models of his room have been generated, adding substance to the theory he used the camera obscura in his work. A New Perspective on Science and Art
Further from the investigations of Paul T. Burns... Treatise on Painting - 1457 Leon Battista Alberti (1398 [1404?]-1472 [1484?]) Vasari, in his 'Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects' tells us of Alberti;
"Leon Battista made a discovery for representing landscapes and for diminshing and enlarging figures by means of an instrument, all good inventions useful to art."This instrument was actually Alberti's Intersector (a cousin to the camera lucida), and not a camera obscura. Alberti describes this technique in his 'Treatise on Painting'. Vasari's work also contains details of a show box (Vite de' Piu Eccellenti Architetti e Scultori, Vasari, G., Milan, Italy, 1809, vol.5, p81) where painted pictures on transparent bases were illuminated from behind by candles. This description closely resembles (and pre-dates) the magic lanterns of Drebbel and Kircher.
During the 15th century, William Gainsborough painted many landscapes (perhaps for Alberti) on glass and made similar apparatti (show boxes) to that of Alberti. These boxes were wooden and had peep-holes at one side. The opposite end was open and had the glass-painted slide inserted and lit from behind by candles. A Gainsborough showbox is [on display] at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
What could be the earliest published description of the camera obscura (Vinci's works were not published until 1797 when deciphered by Venturi) is found in Vitruvius's Treatise On Architecture (10 volumes, Trans. by Caesare Caesariano (1483-1543) , Como, Italy, 1521, Book 1, Leaf 23, verso). Caesariano was a student under Leonardo da Vinci and through the work of Vitruvius, describes a passage detailing an experiment by an unknown Benedictine monk, Papnutio, or Paunce. The entry tells of the use of a cone-shaped hole (or tube) in the wall, in order to allow more light and therefore a larger image on the opposite white wall. A concave glass screen is also mentioned being placed in the hole of a wall in a darkened room. Like the style of Leonardo Da Vinci, Papnutio gives exact dimensions in his account of the camera obscura. Unfortunately, Caesariano does not give dates of the experiment. Thirty years later, Giovanni Battista Della Porta will speak of the camera in astonishingly similar terms and claims for his own the idea of using lenses under the pretense of "secrets". Hermann Hecht's Pre-Cinema History (3) notes inability to trace Papnutio
German artist Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) made woodcuts of drawing aids, one of which was his own and published them in his Underweysung in 1525. His illustrations show telescopic, or sighting tubes and grids used by the artist.
German mathematician and astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (1511-1553) made observations of solar eclipses using a pinhole camera, and explained how to use the camera to view the eclipse. Reinhold tells of two eclipses that took place in 1544 (a solar eclipse of January 24, 1544 was illustrated and described by Frisius) and 1545. Reinhold's Theoricae Novae Planetarum of Georg Pauerbach, mentions that not only can one observe an eclipse, but also "things in the street."
Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), a professor of mathematics and a physician, published in his book De Subtilitate Libri (XXI, Cardani, Nurnberg, 1550, Book IV, p107) his makings of a camera obscura with a diverting spectacle and a very graphic description of darkroom pictures and their appearances. Cardano appears also to have initiated the use of a convex lens in the aperture. Cardano was a showman, and projected wild scenes of the outdoors along with appropriate sound effects to audiences in the camer obscura (see Villeneuve, c.1290). In 1570, Cardano was accused of heresy, jailed, and lost his right to publish books.
Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1538-1615), gave elaborate details in physics, alchemy, astronomy, magic, cooking, perfumes, toiletry and optics in his Magiae Naturalis Libri (III, vol.4, Porta, Naples, Italy, 1558). This first work (also see 1588) by the Neopolitan scientist Porta, was a popular piece of scientific literature in the sixteenth century and in book 2, chapter 3, Porta gives a thorough description of a camera obscura and the images that one would see. From about this point on, the camera obscura would become a useful tool to artists.
Venetian nobleman and architect Daniel Barabaro describes the use of a biconvex lens in the camera obscura in his La Practtica Della Perspecttiva (Barbaro, Venice, Italy, 1568, ch.5, p192). As did Giovanni Batista Della Porta, Barbaro suggested the use of the camera obscura to the painter. In describing the use of the convex lens, he shows that the image is much sharper and can therefore be outlined by a pencil. The Complete History of Cinematography
From a photgraphic newsgroup... The first documented case of a camera obscura being used, as far as my research indicates, is that of Fillipo Brunelleschi in 1425. (For an interesting discussion see Shigeru Tsuji, Brunelleschi and the camera obscura: the discovery of pictorial perspective, Art History vol. 13, Sep. 1990, pp. 276-292.) There may still be some debate about whether Brunelleschi used a camera obscura but to my mind his argument is convincing. James Snyder (author of Medieval and Northern Renaissance Art) has said that camera obscuras were quite popular with landscape painters right around the time of Rembrandt, which would be quite in period. Raedwynne aet thaem Grene Wudu
The earliest work mentioned that I have found on cursory examination is from the 1st century BC. There are many from the 16th century, and some from the 15th century and before. One must really read through some of the entries to get a real feel for what this bibliography is all about. http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/p-cameras-msg.html
Photography: History and Development Photography as it is known today originated in the early 19th century when Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce managed to fix a crude image on a pewter plate. With the synthesis of three emerging technologies-optics, mechanics and chemistry-it might seem that photography came into being overnight. Yet its origins reach far beyond Niepce and back to the dawn of human awareness. As early as the fourth century BC (circa 336-323 BC), Aristotle described a method for viewing a solar eclipse without damaging the eye. If a metal plate punched with small holes was held up to the sun, he said, then a corresponding image of the sun could be projected through it and onto the ground. The method was not novel to Aristotle, and likely well established before he wrote about it. This simple optical principle is the foundation of photography. The Camera Obscura In 1038 AD, an Arab scholar named Alhazan described a working model of the camera obscura. Literally meaning dark chamber, the camera obscura was a room or box lit only by a small hole that admitted sunshine. Light rays poured through the hole, eerily assembling an image of the outside world on the opposite wall. Although Alhazan did not actually construct the device, his work would influence a medieval tinkerer named Roger Bacon. In 1267 AD, Bacon created convincing optical illusions by using mirrors and the basic principles of the camera obscura. Later, he used a camera obscura to project an image of the sun directly upon an opposite wall. Throughout the middle ages, Bacon's ideas were adapted for astronomical observations of the sun. The camera obscura became a popular tool for safely studying eclipses. It was not until the Renaissance that the instrument was widely used as a drawing tool. Although Leonardo Da Vinci is popularly credited for using the camera obscura to draw, that is only partially true. A student of physiology, Da Vinci built a small camera obscura to test his theories about the workings of the human eye and the concept of perspective. Da Vinci never used the camera obscura to draw. Without a lens, the camera was not a very effective or portable tool for viewing the world. The introduction of the orbem e vitro, a kind of primitive biconvex lens, revolutionized the utility of the camera obscura. Like the lens that C. C. Harrison and J. Schinitzler would perfect in 1860, the orbem was constructed of two convex lenses. The design reduced distortion and increased clarity. Although no inventor is known, the lens was first mentioned by Girolamo Cardano, a Milanese mathematics professor, in the 1550 edition of his scientific encyclopedia. In 1558 the Neapolitan scientist Giovanni Battista della Porta suggested the camera obscura would make a wondrous aid to artists. In his Magiae Naturalis, he discussed the applications to portraiture, landscapes, and the copying of other paintings. With the lens, he wrote, "You will see everything clearer, the faces of men walking in the street, the colors, clothes, and everything as if you stood nearby." Another notable improvement came in 1568 when Daniele Barbaro, a Venetian nobleman, described a camera obscura outfitted with a lens and diaphragm. This forerunner of the aperture could be made progressively smaller so the image would become ever sharper. With continuing improvements in optics, the camera obscura no longer needed a large, stationary room to create an image. In 1572 Friedrich Risner constructed a small hut that could be carried around the countryside and used to make topographical drawings. Camera obscuras began to shrink in size and improve in optical quality. By 1657, camera obscuras were small enough to be carried under one arm. During the latter half of the 17th century, they proliferated across Europe, with uses as varied as painting, architectural drawing and spying. As remarkable as the instruments were, they didn't fully satisfy the needs of artists. While canvas painting is a vertical pursuit, many artists preferred to sketch a scene on a laptop pad. In 1676, Johann Christoph Sturm, a professor of mathematics at Altdorf University in Germany, introduced a reflex mirror. Mounted at a 45 degree angle from the lens, the mirror projected the image to a screen above. This elegant configuration is at the core of modern single lens reflex cameras. In 1685, Johann Zahn, a monk from Wurzburg, solved the final piece in the optical puzzle. Improving upon Sturm's design, he introduced lenses of longer and shorter focal lengths. Scenes as wide as a landscape or as close as a portrait could be viewed with a simple change of lens. He also painted the interior of his camera obscura black to avoid internal reflections. Excepting a mechanical shutter, Zahn's invention was the prototype for today's camera. Yet it would be over one hundred and fifty years before the camera obscura and photosensitive chemicals were combined to make permanent photographs. http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/photo_hd.html
Vermeer and Camera Obscura
http://www.fineanddecorativeart.com
An in-depth technical examination of Vermeer's 'Music Lesson' by Professor Philip Steadman clearly supports the argument that Vermeer indeed used a camera obscura. Taken from a draft published on his home page, Professor Steadman writes, in part...
"For more than a hundred years it has been suggested by art historians that the painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) used the camera obscura as an aid to composition." [...] "Up until recently the belief that Vermeer might have worked in this way has rested on analysis of certain characteristics of the artist's style. (There is no independent documentary evidence of his working methods. Vermeer's perspective has seemed to certain critics to be `photographic'; he reproduces some real objects such as actual maps, and paintings by other artists, with great precision; and most tellingly, he renders certain passages 'out of focus'. The suggestion here is that he is copying artifacts of slightly deficient lenses." Further Reading: Online The Magic Mirror of Life: by Jack and Beverly Wilgus The Camera Obscura and Its Subject: by Jonathan Crary The Sky in a Room: how to build your own 'true' Camera Obscura Offline The Camera Obscura, A Chronicle: by John Hammond, 1981, ISBN 085274451X
and finally, from Robert Rigby... The principles of the pinhole camera probably date back to the ancient Greeks, but by the 16th century specially constructed portable darkrooms (or camera obscuras which is derived from Italian meaning "room dark" or dark room) were in quite common use by landscape painters. With their understanding of focusing an image onto a translucent material using a pin hole, they literally traced the local scenery to form the basis of their paintings. It is thought that the Dutch painter, Vermeer, used a camera obscura for many of his paintings. It only took another two hundred years for someone to come along and find the method of "trapping" this focused image onto a photographic materials. Obviously pinhole photography has one or two limitations, such as exposure times and framing, but these are outweighed by the simplicity and low cost approach to producing creative images.
 The Robert Rigby Pinhole Camera "A modern approach to a 'classic' concept"
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