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The first cameras were enormous. Athanasius Kircher
in a book written in 1646, described one which consisted
of an outer shell with lenses in the centre of each wall,
and an inner shell containing transparent paper for
drawing; the artist needed to enter by a trapdoor. Other versions also appeared. Sedan chairs were converted, and tent-type cameras were also in use - even up the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. Then smaller, portable ones were made. Thus the camera obscura, as it came to be known, became a popular aid to sketching. back |
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