The Camera Obscura is an ancient optical device. In its most simple form it is, quite just, a dark room with a small hole in one wall. On the wall opposite the hole, an image is formed of whatever is outside. This image is upside-down and back to front. The size of the hole has a great effect on the picture that is being projected. A small hole creates a sharp image, which is dim, while a larger hole produces a brighter picture which is less well focused.
This happens because light travels in straight lines, a property known as the rectilinear propagation of light. Camera obscura exists in two main forms. Rooms where the viewer is inside the camera looking directly at the image and box types where the image is projected onto a screen which is viewed from outside. The screen is often made of ground glass and normally requires a cover or lid to block out light. Some camera obscuras are built in the room style with a lens mounted horizontally in the ceiling and a mirror at forty five degrees placed above it, the whole lens and mirror can be turned, giving a complete 360 degree view. Our rated lens produces a good image even on a dull day. The Camera is a fairly new object and Photography is a young discipline, but the theory behind the Camera has been used in Art & Design for centuries. By creating a hole in a blacked out room the artist was able to project a 3D image into a 2D space. From this photography was born.