All modern cameras have one common ancestor - The Camera Obscura. Light from the outside world falls through a pinhole and onto the opposite wall of the chamber and produces an upside-down picture.
Pre-punched kit with black and gold printing, complete with lens, mirror, clear screen and transparent paper. In the 16th century the camera obscura was greatly improved upon by the inclusion of an objective lens. This produced a much brighter picture and around 1750, many painters, like the Venetian Canaletto, used it to make sketches for their paintings. In 1836, the French inventor, Nicéphore Nièpce projected the picture on a light-sensitive plate and the photographic camera was born. Our beautiful, sturdy Camera Obscura is equipped with a powerful lens (62mm diameter, 275mm focal length) and a mirror for an upright picture, like the one Canaletto used. The picture is projected onto a 16x16cm screen with transparent paper on which it can be viewed or copied by pencil.
