The movie camera has a long and storied history that encompasses the last hundred years and more. Although it may seem like a simple thing to capture motion photography, there is nothing simple about it. It has taken decades to develop and perfect the technology that has brought movies into the theaters.
The Bet
The invention of the motion picture camera was provoked by a simple bet. In 1877 Eadweard Muybridge made a bet with a friend to determine whether or not a horse has a foot on the ground at all times during a sprint. He set up a succession of cameras that photographed the horse in motion. What resulted was the world's first motion picture. Muybridge also won the bet as the horse did indeed lift all four feet off the ground while running.
Thomas Edison
In 1889 Thomas Edison got into the motion picture game with the Kinetoscope, a peep show device that moved a piece of film across a light to display a moving image. That same year the Eastman Kodak company perfected its celluloid-based film as a capturing medium. Over the next decade Edison would produce short films that were displayed in coin-operated Kinetoscopes across the United States, giving birth to the Nickelodeon theater.
Lumière Brothers
French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière are often credited with creating the first camera. Their cinématographe, patented in 1895, was both a means of capturing movies on film and of projecting them. The Lumière brothers would shoot simple movies of people leaving a factory or a train arriving at a station that astonished audiences around the world.
The 35 mm Camera
At the turn of the century the movie camera was starting to take hold. Thirty-five mm film became the de facto medium on which movies were captured and displayed. As the century moved on, films became longer, actors became more famous, and the studios became more powerful. Film cameras, while still accepting the 35 mm format, became more advanced. They became quieter to allow for sound recording as well as smaller and more portable to allow for more advanced camera movements. The basic design, however, remained largely unchanged.
Digital
Although digital video cameras have been around for some time, they are only just beginning to catch on. One of the first feature films to be shot on digital was Spike Lee's 2000 "Bamboozled," which was shot on a Sony VX-1000. Since then, high-definition digital cameras have become more common, being used for George Lucas's second "Star Wars" trilogy as well as recent Michael Mann movie such as "Collateral," "Miami Vice," and "Public Enemies." James Cameron's "Avatar" reignited the 3D craze in Hollywood, and more and more movies are being shot on the digital 3D Fusion Camera System that he co-developed.
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