The historical development of endophotography

The history of photography starts with the camera of Leonardo da Vinci at around 1500 and the photographic plates by Niepce and Daguerre at the beginning of the nineteenth century. At the same time as those first experiments were being made with photographic plates, the development and study of endoscopy began with the invention of an instrument designed by Phillip Bozzini. Later in that century, Czermak had advanced the technique sufficiently to produce the first endophotograph: his own larynx pictured with a normal camera. Stein then constructed his endocamera with a picture-developing system like the modern Polaroid Land Camera. The definitive step from pioneering experiment to routine application was made by Max Nitze at the end of the nineteenth century with his Photographierkystoskop. Only 50 years later, the quality of color film, and the use of telescopes and light intensity enabled the routine taking of endoscopic pictures. Here the endocorporeal flash and fiberglass light conduction were the decisivecontributions. Hand-colored drawings for scientific use became superfluous and the first photographic atlases were in print from 1960 onwards, thus establishing modern endophotography.