Customer Reviews

Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital

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Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital is a feast for the eyes as well as the intellect. It is a tour de force of the cameras at the George Eastman House with some great images thrown in. The photographs of the cameras, equipment and images are beautifully lit and the perspective on each item is superb, and every photo is in perfect focus. For three hundred and sixty exciting pages, the reader takes a special guided tour of the storerooms of the Eastman House with excellent descriptions by author Todd Gustavsen. I loved the book and it refreshed my memory as to what wonderful treasures are at The George Eastman House. The Forward by Director Anthony Bannon was a fresh approach to how photographs effect us and was well balanced against The Introduction by the author. The use of ephemera to liven up many of the pages was in excellent taste and a delight to the eye. This book was a long time in coming, but with every photograph in color as a bonus, it was well worth the wait. The provenance on a few of the cameras owned by important photographers seemed a little thin, but there was so much good in this book that I feel uneasy questioning even the slightest aspect of the text. For those who really love the early period, each page is a feast for the eyes. The first 139 pages concerned themselves with nineteenth century equipment of which so little has been written that this volume is a must for any collector of the early period and the book, written in a roughly chronological fashion covers all aspects of equipment right up to the present day. In summary, I could not put it down till I had read it from cover to cover.
Matthew R. Isenburg

I saw this book, flipped through a few pages, check the price, and walked up the the counter and bought it. The book is simply amazing. It's filled with hundreds of great shots of every camera you can possibly imagine dating right back to the beginning. There is even a shot of the first photograph ever taken. The short history of photography has been a rapid one, quickly jumping form camera to camera, varying film formats and finally now digital. We live in a great time and are all witnesses to history as film has shifted to digital. This book even chronicles that. My one complaint is there could be more on digital. Still the book is filed soup to nuts with everything one could want to see or know. Spy cameras, Polaroid, early Leica and more. A must have for any photo nut like me.

When "The History of Photography as seen through the Spira Collection" was published in 2001 it was described by that doyen of the photographic press Herbert Keppler as "the most exquisite camera-collecting history ever printed". This description was completely justified and I thought that the quality and scope of that book would never again be approached, let alone equalled, particularly given the almost total dominance of digital in the photographic press today.

I was wrong. This new volume by Todd Gustavson and George Eastman House is superb and fully matches the Spira title. Experts who want to nit pick may argue that one or other of the books handles a particular subject better than the other. However, Gustavson's new book is simply a must have for anyone interested in camera development and collecting and at the selling price is an absolute bargain. This is a large, heavy book of 360 pages printed on fine art paper, beautifully set out and illustrated with very high quality photography. Don't think twice before getting one.

A beautiful tribute to one of the most democratic of 20th Century tools. A beautifully produced book.

This is the wrong book if you're looking for a detailed history of photography from the very first Daguerreotype to present day photography. What it does show is showing a list of cameras from the very beginning of photography until today. It would have been nice if the book was actually showing photos made with the cameras as well, but it is limited to a not-quite chronological display of cameras.

Once you step over this limitation, the book is a labor of love, with beautiful images on thick paper and well bound. To get historic impression of how cameras look over the ages the book does a very good job and it's a nice read on the couch sitting in front of a fire, with a cup of hot cocoa (or something along those lines). Will do great as a gift for photography-enthusiasts.

Exactly what I expected. Lots of information I could not get from else where. Very satisfied with my purchase and would highly recommend.

This book is an awesome history of the device we refer to as a "The Camera," from the primitive 19th century boxes to modern digital forms, a great pictoral history of an evolution.

Finally we have a book that explores the history of the equipment that makes the photograph possible rather than a history through photographs! Many books calling themselves histories of photography look only at the photographs via people such as Brady and Adams. While the photograph is obviously the ultimate goal of any photographer many have an acute interest in the equipment and science behind it. Many, such as myself, even collect old photo equipment. Whether professional or amateur, if you are fascinated by cameras and other photographica, you need this book! Beautifully illustrated and well written, its scope superbly covers a much neglected subject.

I bought this book as a gift. I read and digested it cover to cover before I wrapped it. I plan to buy copy for myself sooner of later.

It thoroughly covers a subject that many photo history texts relegate to tiny captions. There are many great books on the history of photography and I would rank this one up there with the best. There are so many cameras in this book, so many I have never seen. From camera obscuras to the digital age. Every process is detailed and the tech that went with it. It is a photo geeks paradise to peruse the pages. As a avid photo artist, I really enjoyed this book and plan to use it as a teaching text.

I enjoy these sorts of books, large oversized books with lots of pictures and descriptions. Generally I can get through them in one sitting.

Not this one! It has taken me almost a month and I'm still not through. Each illustration begs you to read the description. The unique early cameras are treasures and the when you see the "all in one" camera sets, camera and developing materials all in one package you wonder how anyone ever took as many pictures as we have available to us now.

I was especially taken with the workaday cameras, those made for the rank amateur (sort of like myself). There is an inherent beauty to the Brownie #2. You instantly see why this was such a popular camera and to those of us who only know grandparents and great granparents through snapshots we should be eternally greatful to George Eastman and the Kodak Company.

Along with detailed pictures of the various cameras the book is sprinkled with photos taken by these cameras. I am a fan of "found photography" those pictures that were shot by persons unknown for reasons that were obviously important at the time but now lost. There are lots of those in this book which gives you a good sense of the time and place these cameras were in use.

Anyone with an interest in either early photography or cameras will enjoy this book.