A Brief History of Photography

By Neil Rosenfeld

Introduction: This guide is designed for the newcomer to eBay and/or photo equipment. It will help you understand the categories of photo equipment available on eBay and get you started buying and/or selling. There are sections on the major photography categories, caring for and insuring photo equipment, factors that influence value, tips for listing and selling on eBay, tips for finding and buying on eBay, and a list of books and other sources of information. This guide is meant to help the eBay community. For comments and suggestions, email us at photo@ebay.com.

Brief History

It is hard to imagine a 19th century invention that created more wonder and enjoyment than photography. Photography made it possible to freeze a moment of time ... to see the farthest reaches of the world ... to write with light.

Although the discovery of photography was officially announced in 1839, the first photographic image was created about 1826. It wasn't until the 1880s however, that photography really reached the masses. That was when George Eastman invented roll film, an easy to use camera (the Kodak box camera), and commercial processing and printing. Now, anyone could take pictures. As Kodak's slogan stated, "You press the button, we do the rest".

While the act of photographing has remained relatively unchanged, equipment has evolved continuously. Cameras have become smaller and lighter, lenses have become sharper and faster, and film is continuously improving. With the advent of digital imaging, film has even become optional to creating images.

Welcome to the wonderful world of photography at eBay.

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The preceding material was written by Neil Rosenfeld. These are the opinions of the author, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.