The daguerreotype camera of 1839 is a photographic landmark. It introduced the first practical method for taking a photograph, although what is generally acknowledged as the first photograph was actually taken thirteen years before with a different type of camera by nicéphore niépce. The leica was the first camera to make the 35mm format popular, but it was by no means the first camera to use 35mm film. Likewise, polaroid wasn’t the first to produce an instant picture camera, but was, surprisingly, the first company to introduce an autofocus single lens reflex. The history of the camera is flush with similar anomalies. This lavishly illustrated book with over 460 pictures looks at the cameras that became landmarks and analyzes how and why they influenced future design – sometimes in a big, important manner, other times in a lesser but still significant way. 256 pp.