Videos

In the fascinating hour-long video below, Chris Marquardt gets an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the Kodak Technology vault with his guide Todd Gustavson, curator of the museum’s technology collection.

One of several at the George Eastman Museum, this vault is a sort of time capsule of photographic technology that includes an example of the oldest known Daguerrotypie camera (with its original packaging and accessories) to be sold in the United States, (As proof they have the original sales receipt dated 1840 for a price of $76 and a $2 fee.) Gustavson notes that this vault alone contains over 8,000 different types of cameras.

The collection features examples of the oldest professional models—such as one of the first bellows cameras (expertly hand crafted from wood)—to the smaller, more mass-produced cameras like the Brownie created for use by the (then) budding armature market. The Eastman Museum does an amazing job of highlighting the rapid evolution from wet plate processing to film cameras and the first generation of modern digital models (and even camera phones) from Kodak and many other manufacturers—including Leica, Canon and Nikon. 

(If you like the below history lesson, you should also check out this video explaining the science behind digital sensors.)

(Via PetaPixel)