Ever heard of a Daguerreotype camera?

[raffile]

I was in salt lake city and visited this store in the mountains it was filled with photos taken from a Daguerreotype camera. (I think that's what it is called) anyway the photos are incredible! And they use silver plated copper plates. Its an OLD camera but I was told that it is actually better than any moften camera. When you dim the lights the photos will actually dim in the same manner as if you were there. Of coarse they wanted on average 40-50,000 dollars for one photo. Has anyone ever used one of these cameras? Would be kind of nice to hear about it.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Daguerreotype isn't a camera, it's a process. It was the first patented, permanent photographic process, invented in the mid 19th century by two men, Joseph Niépce, and Louis Daguerre. Niépce invented the exposure process, Daguerre eventually figured out how to fix the plates (on accident). Most people don't use this process anymore because it is either not practical, too difficult, too expensive, or too dangerous for your health. To fix a Daguerreotype plate, you need to expose it to mercury vapors. That can kill you.

the history books say Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype which uses paper negatives BEFORE the daguerreotype, but because he didn't patent it first, the daguerreotype became more commercially successful.

Sally Mann is a contemporary artist who uses a collodian process, the same that Matthew Brady used in the civil war, if you're interested in some older techniques.

 

[djacobox372]

The camera is really no different then a sheet fed film camera, except its setup to use glass plates.The mirror like d-types are special and its true that they offer way more resolution then modern digital sensors due to there size (8x10" is a lot bigger then any digital sensor). However a d-type image captured at the size of a digital sensor would be much lower resolution, and 8x10" film is also superior.Finally a full plate d-type should only cost a couple grand, unless the subject matter is famous.