Who invented the camera lens?

Who invented the camera lens?

• Answer:

  I'm presuming you mean photographic camera and not the camera obscura. It is not really a question that can be definitively answered as written. The earliest uncovered evidence of lens making dates back several centuries (from Persia, I believe), while the principle of the camera obscura (co hereinafter) dates back to about 300 B.C. The first device constructed to employ the principles was built around 1021 A.D, yet it was not even given this name until 1604. I think the earliest known reference to adding a lens to the co was written around 1568 (Daniele Barbaro), and Johann Zahn constructed a co small enough to be easily portable about 1679 to 1685, depending on what reference you cite. I do not know if he designed the lens that made this possible or simply incorporated one into his design. Therefore, this forerunner of the portable photographic camera was in existence about 150 years before the "invention" of photography. From this it is evident that the co with its lens predates the concept of photography by a long shot. Therefore, the device used in 1826 to make the first permanent photographic image employed chemical and optical knowledge that predated it by many centuries. Perhaps it is more a question of how the lens and the camera obscura were adapted to suit the purpose of making photographs. Photography itself is a progession and adaptation of technology rather than some sort of eureka moment. To put this in another context, we probably would not have the automobile if someone had not thought to hitch a horse to a wheeled contraption. Maybe this was the Romans, but that's another topic and I think you will get the point.