Camera SVG is a device for recording still images (taking photos). Image recording in the Camera SVG is carried out in a photochemical way when the light affects the photosensitive photo material. The hidden image obtained in this way is converted into a visible image during laboratory processing. In a digital camera, photofixing takes place by means of photovoltaic conversion of an optical image into an electrical signal, digital data about which are stored on a non-volatile medium.
Camera SVG History
The appearance of the first Camera SVG coincided with the invention of “heliography” by Joseph Nissefor Niepps in 1826. The device for registration of the image on the surface of asphalt lacquer was a variant of the camera obscura, which had previously been actively used by artists to draw from life. Further development of the technology is connected with the invention of Daguerreotype by Jacques Louis Daguerre. Daguerreotype quickly spread as a tool for portraiture, becoming commercially viable. The result was the development of new devices for photography, the most original of which in 1840 was the camera of Alexander Walcott with a concave mirror instead of a lens. No less revolutionary was the all-metal Ganzmetallkamera of the German company Vohtlander, equipped with a high-aperture Petzwald lens.
The most rapid development of camera construction began after the opening of the wet collodion process, which replaced the uncomfortable and expensive daguerreotype and calotypy. The photographic equipment for this technology preserved the direct vision camera device, but was upgraded to focus fur and a high-aperture portrait lens. The introduction of dry, high-sensitivity silver gelatinosilver photographic plates made it possible to shoot at instantaneous shutter speeds, which required a special mechanism to adjust the duration of exposure to light. Such a device was a photo shutter, the first designs of which appeared in 1853. Ottomar Anshutz’s invention of the high-speed slot and curtain shutter led to the appearance of reporters’ cameras – press cameras, which were put into mass production by Goerz in 1888.
The start of production of silver gelatin papers suitable for projection printing, as well as an increase in the resolution of photoemulsions have launched the process of miniaturization of cameras and the emergence of new portable varieties of cameras, such as folding and roadside cameras. A technological breakthrough was made in 1888 by George Eastman, who produced the first Kodak box camera charged with roll-film on a flexible celluloid substrate. The invention marked the beginning of amateur photography, freeing the photographer from the need for photographic material and printing. All this was done by Eastman’s company, where a camera with the film was sent by mail. Back the amateur photographer, having paid 10 dollars, received a reloaded camera, ready-made negatives and contact prints from them. Shooting without a tripod was impossible with direct sighting, which led to the appearance of the viewfinder in all compact cameras. Simultaneously with the compact cameras there were numerous cameras for covert shooting, including those built into clothing: ties, hats and handbags.
The development of color photography technologies in the second half of the XIX century, based on Maxwell’s three-color theory of color perception, led to the spread of specialized devices that allow for color separation in various ways. The simplest solution was to shoot three color-separated images on a common photographic plate through three lenses covered with main color filters. However, the distance between them inevitably led to parallax and, as a consequence, the color contours on the image of close objects. Cameras with sequential shooting through one lens on an extended photographic plate with automatic step-by-step shift turned out to be more perfect. The most famous are such cameras designed by Adolf Miethe, one of which was used by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky.
Camera SVG with a sliding cassette for three exposures were suitable only for shooting fixed objects and landscapes because of the inevitable temporary parallax. All the drawbacks were deprived of three-plate cameras with internal color separation, which allowed taking pictures of moving objects through a common lens into one exposition. The invention of the autochrome process and the subsequent distribution of multi-layered photographic materials allowed for the abandonment of complex photographic equipment, but nevertheless cameras with internal color separation using translucent mirrors were used in the publishing business until the mid-1950s.
One of the key roles in the improvement of cameras was played by the formation of aerial photography, which received a rapid development after the First World War. High flight speeds required short shutter speeds, forcing them to compensate for the high luminous intensity of the lenses. At the same time, the inadmissibility of geometric distortion, especially in photogrammetry, forced the development of optics with minimal distortion. Many of the shutter and lens designs used in modern cameras were developed specifically for airborne cameras, and only then were they used in general-purpose cameras. The same applies to auxiliary mechanisms: for example, automated recharging of the Camera SVG for the first time was used for aerial photography.