Cameras of the 1840s

Voigtländer's Petzval lens, designed in 1841, was 16 times faster than landscape lenses of the day, making portrait photography practical for the first time.

The cyanotype process, invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, used iron salts and sunlight to produce distinctive blue prints. Anna Atkins used it to illustrate the first photographically illustrated book.