What is the earliest point in time that the camera could have been invented?
Did it come as early as it possibly could given the technology required, or could it have potentially been discovered decades, or even centuries earlier?
I have always wondered how differently we would view history and historical figures if cameras were around during medieval or even classical times onward. It would be so different to have actual photographs of Roman legions, or the Mongol Horde, or Constantinople under siege, or even something as slightly early as the Battle of Waterloo.
Camera? You mean, like, a phone?
>>946897
I suppose the Medieval era if the Arabs or Latins writing their books on optics figured out a way to imprint images onto some material by getting lucky with some chemical reaction that didn't have to involve much understanding of electrical currents. It'd be accidental though.
>>946897
The concept of the camera obscura is very ancient. Dating back to the end of the first millennium. It has become relatively popular from the eighteenth century.
However, the chemistry involved is much more recent. Several trials and errors were necessary, and even accidental discoveries, to be able to record images on flat surfaces by exposure to light.
>>946972
But could those accidental discoveries have been made earlier? Could some plucky ancient Greek scholar have accidentally found out the processes for making photos?
>>946897
>tfw photos would make us take ancient armies less seriously because everyone would clearly be manlets
