Briefly describe the basic technology behind the earliest cameras?

Question: Briefly describe the basic technology behind the earliest cameras?

The basic technology behind the earliest cameras was based on the principle of camera obscura, which is a natural optical phenomenon that projects an inverted image of a scene through a small hole onto a surface. The earliest documented explanation of this principle comes from Han Chinese (approximately 470 to 391 BC), who correctly argued that the inversion of the camera obscura image is a result of light traveling in straight lines from its source.

The first cameras were large boxes or rooms with a small hole on one side that allowed light to enter and create an image on the opposite wall. These images could only be preserved by manually tracing them, as no photographic processes had been invented yet. By the late 17th century, portable versions of the camera obscura housed in tents and boxes became commonly used for drawing purposes.

The first camera to take a permanent photograph was invented in 1816 by French inventor Nicephore Niepce. His simple camera used paper coated with silver chloride, which would produce a negative of the image (dark where it should be light). Because of how silver chloride works, these images were not permanent. However, later experiments using “Bitumen of Judea” produced permanent photos, some of which remain today [3]. Niepce referred to this process as “heliography”.