25 Camera Obscura Facts For Kids: Know All About This 'Dark Room'

A camera obscura is a device or dark chamber with a small hole that admits light through it.

It dates back to 400 BC and was used to create drawings and paintings. It was also used as protection during the sun's eclipses.

This reflects an upside-down inverted image of an object through a small hole on the opposite wall through the thin material. The light travels in straight lines and retains information about the object, and these rays form a pinhole image of that same object.

In ancient times, it was used to trace images by reflecting images on a piece of drawing paper.

Camera obscuras were initially created on large scales, but the modern camera obscura boxes were made to fit into a small modified box. It is also referred to as a pinhole camera.

History Of The Camera Obscura

The Latin name for the camera obscura is the dark chamber or darkroom.

The camera obscura was created as a shortcut to the usual meticulous process of measuring and tracing out shapes and lines.

Before the modern portable pinhole camera, they were large and designed to be installed in tents and rooms.

The earliest recordings of camera obscura can be traced to a Chinese philosopher named Mohism in 490 BC.

Following him, several other philosophers experimented with the same concept in the fourth, sixth and ninth centuries.

Leonardo Da Vinci published his own refined camera obscura in a 12 bound book called the 'Codex Atlanticus', drawing inspiration from various other records in the 15th century. He drew 270 diagrams of the camera obscura in total.

Leonardo Da Vinci was particularly interested in the workings of a camera obscura. He was the first person to compare it to the working of a human eye.

Although the camera obscura gained recognition as an optical instrument used for drawing during the 15th century, it sparked controversy as it was seen as cheating rather than ingenious.

The term camera obscura was first coined in the 16th century by Johannes Kepler. Kepler was a mathematician that mentioned the term in his book Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena.

According to historians, Johannes Vermeer was the first person to use the camera obscura for a drawing in the 17th century. It's possible he used the camera obscura to create an image outline before painting it.

Because it was discovered that looking directly into the sun is dangerous, German scientists David and Johannes Fabricius combined a camera obscura and a telescope to study sunspots.

To aid in battle, astronomer Mario Bettini proposed a camera obscura box with 12 holes that would project the image of 12 men when a soldier was placed in front of it.

Earlier versions of camera obscura were usually in a tent before the portable variations were invented. The portable versions consisted of a rotating lens instead of a small hole, which could be adjusted. This paved the way for the modern photographic device.

Mechanics Behind The Camera Obscura

The camera obscura principle is considered to be relatively basic in nature.

The camera obscura consists of a dark room or box with a small hole or lens on one side of the wall.

When light travels through the hole and hits a surface inside, the image of the object is projected upside down on the plane opposite. Although it is projected upside down, the perspective and color remain the same.

The size of the hole directly impacts the image that is reproduced. The hole must be small to obtain a sharp but dim image. The hole must be larger to obtain a brighter but less focused image.

The above phenomenon occurs because the light rays travel in a straight line. This is known as rectilinear propagation of light.

The camera obscura is fitted with a lens rather than a hole to maintain focus and brightness. This is because the lens creates a larger opening for the sunlight to pass through.

The image can be projected from the right side up using a plane mirror. Mirrors also allow the image to be reproduced on a horizontal surface.

Most camera obscuras are therefore fitted with a mirror to reverse the image.

Camera Obscura's Seen Around The World

Camera obscura was a popular tourist attraction in Europe and the United States of America during the 1800s. Even though only a few of these structures still exist today, the camera obscura is still considered a popular tourist attraction in many parts of the world.

Mitchell Park is a camera obscura in New York made up of digitally fabricated parts. It blends old and new components together. Visitors can visit the park and control the lens using a joystick.

Cloud chamber for the trees and sky is a camera obscura built in North California. It is built within a dense forest-like environment. It is in the shape of an igloo with rich foliage surrounding it. The one hole is at the chamber's top, which creates a pinhole image of the clouds, trees, and surrounding area.

Santa Monica camera obscura is a camera obscura that has been in Santa Monica since 1898 and was created by Robert F. Jones. It has documented over 50 years of memories from the Santa Monica beach.

Camera obscura and world of illusions are located in Scotland and are Edinburgh's oldest attraction. It was built in 1835 and has been operating for 150 years.

It consists of five floors of illusions and interactive activities. Unlike other museums and attractions, visitors are encouraged to touch and interact with every object in this building. The camera obscura was added after 1892.

The Observatory and camera obscura is housed within an old windmill in Bristol, England. It is located within a windmill that was destroyed by fire in 1777. William West rented out the mill in 1828 and then installed the camera obscura, which provides visitors with a 360 view across the entire tower.

Camera obscura at the Alcazar of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain was built in the 11th century, but the camera obscura was installed in the 20th century. A large mirror was built on the top of the tower because it was built on the city's highest point.

Visitors gather around a table that displays images of the surrounding city.