History of the Single Lens Reflex (SLR) Camera

STS Individual Project by Adrian Tolentino 

History of the SLR Camera

The camera is a remarkable tool because it allows the user to capture visual moments in time to last into the future, preserving memories and emotions. The inventors of early cameras could never imagine the capabilities of the camera today – it has been transformed into a multitasking tool for documentation and artistic expression. This review will present the amazing transformation of the single lens reflex (SLR) camera from its creation until today.

Early Cameras

There were many modifications to the first camera before the creation of the first SLR camera. The invention that led to the idea of photographs was the camera obscura, which used pinhole or lens to project an outside scene onto a flat viewing surface (Gernsheim, 1965). Early fixed images were made possible with bitumen-covered plates in 1826; when exposed to light, the bitumen hardened, and bitumen not exposed to light dissolved to reveal the photograph. Followed by the development of “daguerreotype” cameras,

dry plates, and the invention of film, the SLR camera emerged as the popular and manageable type of camera in 1928.

The SLR Camera

British photographer Thomas Sutton was credited with inventing the first photographic single lens reflex camera in 1861 (Coe, 1978). The first SLR for production was the Monocular Duplex in 1884, and others were constructed in the following years until 1907. As was also true with other early cameras, the large size of these devices was a major factor in their usability and popularity. Early SLR cameras were also very large, but the dedication of inventors to the improvement of design resulted in the quick modification of these large format cameras into medium format and smaller models. Known for their small size and convenience, the first small SLR model to gain significant popularity was the Ihagee Vest Pocket Exakta in 1933,

which featured the first 127 film. The first 35mm SLR camera was the “Sport” developed in the Soviet Union in 1934, but Germany got the first 35mm SLR camera on the market in 1936. Technical innovations evolved through the creation of various models starting with the Exakta and followed by the Zeiss, the Praktiflex Praktica, the Edixa, and then Japanese innovations contributed the leaf shutter, the focal-plane shutter, and interchangeable lenses among names such as Pentax, Miranda, Yashica, and Zunow (Lewis, 1990). Innovation in SLR cameras since these changes in the 1950s have focused on design and layout of controls; at this time the popular names of recent years emerged, such as the Minolta, Nikon, Canon, and Olympus. Improvements through the 1970s included light metering, automation, and further design changes. The capability of autofocus was another major innovation, which was featured first by the Polaroid SX-70 in 1978. Since 2000, the shift to digital photography has mostly terminated the manufacturing of SLR film cameras, and digital SLR (DSLR) cameras dominate the market for SLR cameras, especially among professional photographers, while others prefer the ease of point and shoot “digicams.”

References
Coe, B. (1978). Cameras. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Gernsheim, H. (1965). A concise history of photography. London: Thames and Hudson.
Lewis, G. (1990). The history of the Japanese camera. International Museum Photography.