Editing Pinhole camera (section)

===Camera obscura===
{{further|Camera obscura}}
The camera obscura or pinhole image is a natural optical phenomenon. Early known descriptions are found in the Chinese [[Mozi (book)|Mozi]] writings (circa 500 BCE)<ref>{{Cite web|title=CS194-26: proj2|url=https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs194-26/fa17/upload/files/proj2/cs194-26-afq/|access-date=2022-01-07|website=inst.eecs.berkeley.edu}}</ref> and the Aristotelian ''[[Problems (Aristotle)|Problems]]'' (circa 300 BCE – 600 CE).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Camera Obscura: Ancestor of Modern Photography {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/camera-obscura-ancestor-modern-photography|access-date=2022-01-07|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

[[File:Light behaviour through pinhole.svg|thumb|A diagram depicting [[Ibn al-Haytham]]'s observations of light's behaviour through a pinhole]]
[[Ibn al-Haytham]] (965–1039), an [[Physics in the medieval Islamic world|Arab physicist]] also known as Alhazen, described the camera obscura effect. Over the centuries others started to experiment with it, mainly in dark rooms with a small opening in shutters, mostly to study the nature of light and to safely watch [[solar eclipse]]s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Global History of Philosophy: The Period of scholasticism (part one)|last=Plott|first=John C.|year=1984|isbn=978-0-89581-678-8|page=460|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErMRGiNcxJIC&pg=PA460}}</ref>

[[Giambattista Della Porta]] wrote in 1558 in his [[Magia Naturalis]] about using a concave mirror to project the image onto paper and to use this as a drawing aid.<ref>{{cite arXiv |last1=Zik |first1=Yaakov |last2=Hon |first2=Giora |title=Claudius Ptolemy and Giambattista Della Porta: Two Contrasting Conceptions of Optics |date=10 February 2019 |class=physics.hist-ph |eprint=1902.03627}}</ref> However, at about the same time, the use of a lens instead of a pinhole was introduced. In the 17th century, the camera obscura with a lens became a popular drawing aid that was further developed into a mobile device, first in a little tent and later in a box. The [[photography|photographic]] camera, as developed early in the 19th century, was basically an adaptation of the box-type camera obscura with a lens.

The term "pin-hole" in the context of optics was found in James Ferguson's 1764 book ''Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://idea.uwosh.edu/nick/oldarticles.htm|title=Nick's pinhole photography|website=idea.uwosh.edu|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-date=30 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930110550/http://idea.uwosh.edu/nick/oldarticles.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wpGvgAACAAJ&pg=PA124|title = Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics with the use of the globes, the art of dialing, and the calculation of the mean times of new and full moone and eclipses|last1 = Ferguson|first1 = James|year = 1764}}</ref>