Who invented the Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera?

Single-lens reflex cameras were first developed for large film sizes like l20 AND 4x5. tThe Famed firm of Graflex got the ball(or bellows) rolling. the Graflex(not the speed graphic ) introduced the graphic reflex camera in the early l900"s. The Germans and also the Bnritish picked up on the design. ealry slrs were bulky due to the hoysing for the hood and reflex mirror-some siad the old graflexes resmebled a scale model of a marine grain elevator when(Up0) withthe advent of 35MM filjm it was only amatter of time before a 35Mm Reflex became possible then popular. it is believed the Japanese Pentax with the pentaprism(five elements) solved theeye-level slr task )-there wee waist level s l r camera in 35 inthe thirties such as the German Exakta. The Pentax derives its name form penta meaing five (like Pentagon) and the pentaprism device whichy permiots eye-level SLR VIEWING. cAMNE OUT AFTER wAR 2.

This is a puzzler. The first commercially successful SLRs were probably the VP Exactas, which, by 1936 had evolved into the Kine Exacta, the world's first 35mm SLR.

The first instant return mirror was in the Gamma Duflex of 1943, but there was a war on and the system was unreliable, which is why the 1953 Asahiflex II (Pentax ancestor) is generally accepted as the first.

The 1948 Contax S (Made by the company that became Praktica) was the first SLR with a pentaprism, it also introduced the 42mm, 'Pentax screw.'

By the mid '50s, retrofocus design was perfected, enabling SLRs to accept wideangle lenses, and all of these innovations allowed the 35mm SLR to displace the rangefinder as the professionals' choice.