History of the camera The history of the camera can be traced much further back than the introduction of photography . Cameras evolved from the camera obscura , and continued to change through many generations of photographic technology, including daguerreotypes , calotypes , dry plates , film , and to the modern day with digital cameras . PINHOLE CAMERA The first pinhole camera (also called the Camera Obscura ) was invented by Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham). Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham) was a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages who lived around 1000AD. He invented the first pinhole camera (also called the Camera Obscura } and was able to explain why the images were upside down. The first casual reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible was observed and noted by Aristotle around 330 BC. He questioned why the sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole. THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH On a summer day i