Who Invented First Movie Camera and Began the History of Filmmaking

The Lumière brothers are considered to be the first filmmakers in history but the idea of shooting motion pictures was not new at the time. Auguste and Louis Lumière just were the first #French inventors, who managed to make films commercially successful.


By demonstrating their short animation films in Grand Café in Paris in 1895, they proved that their Cinematograph, a motion picture film camera, was the most advanced for the time.



More seven years earlier, a French inventor named Louis Le Prince used his movie camera to shoot a very short movie clip "Roundhay Garden Scene" (although it was 1.66 seconds long but groundbreaking for the time).

His technology for shooting moving pictures could have become a huge hit but Louis Le Prince never received a patent for his technology, as he mysteriously disappeared shortly after presenting his discovery. The reason for his mysterious disappearance was never found but despite this, Louis Le Prince is known in France as the Father of Cinematography.

William Friese-Greene, an #English inventor, was probably the first inventor to get a patent for his chronophotographic camera. But due to his financial struggles, the technology never became as popular as it should have and later he even sold the rights for his patent to cover some of the debts. The new owner of the patent never paid the renewal fee, so it was lost.

In 1891, Thomas Edison’s company patented and presented the Kinetoscope. This early motion picture exhibition device was exceptionally good from a technical point of view but was capable of showing the film to only one viewer through a peephole viewer.

This was a major downside of the Kinetoscope, which eventually lost the competition to the Cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, which could project the film on the screen for a few people.

Image credits:

1) www.film110.pbworks.com/w/page/12610310/f/da58f23f559e321b_large.jpg
2) www.codymalave.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/5/5/20558192/6832840_orig.jpg?170
3) www.img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/Liz-ONBC/HUGO%20CABRET/The%20Lumiere%20Brothers/Cinematographe9.jpg
4) www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Institut_Lumi%C3%A8re_-_CINEMATOGRAPHE_Camera.jpg