The Giroux daguerreotype camera
August–September 1839
The first camera made for sale, built by Alphonse Giroux in Paris under contract with Daguerre and sold with the chemicals and equipment for the daguerreotype.
How it began
When the French state published the daguerreotype in August 1839, Daguerre had already arranged for Alphonse Giroux, a Paris dealer related to him by marriage, to make and sell the equipment. Each camera carried a plate with Daguerre’s signature to show it was genuine.
How it works
Two wooden boxes slide inside each other to focus. A Chevalier achromatic lens at the front forms the image on a ground-glass screen; once focused, the screen is replaced by the sensitised silver plate. A brass cover over the lens served as the shutter.
Why it mattered
It made photography something you could buy. The kit, with camera, plates, iodine box and mercury box, cost about 400 francs, and its design was copied widely in the first years of photography.
Limits and what replaced it
It was big, heavy and slow; the lens could not take portraits in reasonable time. Smaller metal cameras with the faster Petzval lens replaced it within two years.
Today
A handful survive in museums; they are among the most valuable cameras ever sold at auction.