In this day and age, camera makers
are vying for the rank of the best by rendering superlative features
that are constantly out doing each other day after day. But here is a
camera discovered from a dusty attic that is making news. Called
"Daguerreotype," it is a wooden sliding box camera produced by the
Paris company Susse Freres in 1839.
Discovered as part of an inheritance in Germany, the antique piece will allow
photography enthusiasts rewrite history. Westlicht, a private photo
gallery and auction house in Vienna, plans to auction off this piece of
history on May 26. Believed to be the world's oldest commercially
manufactured camera, Westlicht said the Vienna camera has never been
restored.
Up to now, experts said that apart from some documents there was no proof
that the so-called "Daguerreotype," a wooden sliding box camera
produced by the Paris company Susse Freres in 1839, really existed.
Discovered as part of an inheritance in Germany, the antique piece will
allow photography enthusiasts rewrite history.
The camera belongs to a US-based scholar and was inherited from his father,
a technical photography professor at Munich University. The starting
bid is $132,000, but the final price for the 168-year-old gadget is
expected to be way past a million euros ($1,329,000). This makes it the
most expensive camera in the world.
Invented by French chemist Lois Daguerre, a daguerreotype is an early type of
photograph. It produces a direct image on a polished silver surface
that bears a coating of silver halide particles, deposited by iodine
bromide or chlorine vapours. As there was no negative original like in
modern photography, no copies of pictures could be made.
<b>Technical Specifications </b>
- 1 gazillion Megapixels
- 1 Tripod
- 1 Black curtain
- 1 Free top hat with every camera sold (probably)
- 1 Lens cap
- No Zoom
- No Autofocus
- No Red-eye
- No Image stabilization
- No Noise reduction
- No GPS EXIF information
- No Battery
- No Carrying Case
