It’s made of wood, right?

This is one amazing camera – manufactured in 1839 by Alphonse Giroux, Louis D’s brother-in-law (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, JD or Louis D to his friends) – it is in amazing condition and even comes complete with the original manual!!

I’m not going to explain how the first commercially produced camera actually works, and it goes without saying that if you decide you want to buy into one of these you’ll also need to be comfortable handling dangerous chemicals and try not to sniff the toxic fumes that went into making every image!! The articles say nothing about the camera coming with a tripod, so be prepared to cough up for one of them as well – with exposure times anywhere between 3 & 30 minutes, this beasty is not gonna work hand-held!!

For the expected selling price of €500,000-700,000 (Euros), approx $AUD 780k – 1.1 million (yes, million!!), the camera does produce some of the finest images possible, with no noticeable grain even under a magnifying glass!! You need to be fit to own one – the whole kit weighs in at around 50kg!! Oh, and you might want to know that Louis D signed this one himself, so at least you get a famous autograph in the deal as well!!

Oh yeah, this supremely expensive and historically important camera is basically a couple of boxes made of wood – and we worry about whether we have enough tech to get great images in today’s conditions!! I strongly encourage you to read the history behind Daguerreotype’s, it’s fascinating and every photographer should be familiar with it!! Some links below to help you out:

The Auction – WestLicht Photographica Auction
Daguerreotype’s – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype
Louis Daguerre – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Daguerre
The first photograph – Heliography

Interesting bit of side trivia – Louis D also invented the Diorama!!