Who invented the camera and when?

The first practical photographic camera was invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, in 1816. Niépce created the first permanent photograph using a process called heliography, where a pewter plate coated with bitumen was exposed to light, producing an image. However, it was Louis Daguerre, another Frenchman, who perfected the process and introduced the daguerreotype in 1839. This became the first widely used photographic process. The camera’s evolution continued over the years with improvements in film, lenses, and digital technology, ultimately leading to the modern digital cameras we use today.