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cameras all derive from the 16th-century camera obscura. The earliest form of this device was a darkened room with a tiny hole in one wall. Light entered the room through this hole and projected an upside-down image of the subject onto the opposite wall. Over the course of three centuries the camera obscura evolved into a handheld box with a lens replacing the pinhole and an angled mirror at the back. The mirror reflected an image onto a ground-glass viewing screen on the top of the box. Long before film was invented artists used this device to help them draw more accurately. They placed thin paper onto the viewing screen and could easily trace the reflected image.
The inventors of photography in the early 19th century adapted the camera obscura by adding a device for holding sensitized plates in the back of the box. This kind of camera, with some improvements, was used throughout the 19th century. One notable enhancement for the box, pleated leather sides called bellows, allowed the photographer to easily adjust the distance between the lens and the plane of focus. Professional photographers still use a similar camera today, a large-format camera known as the view camera.
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