Do camera obscuras produce negatives or positives of an image?

The camera obscura is the name for a room that produces images on one wall by using a small hole in the opposite wall. Light passes through the hole and creates an image of the outside of the room. Where there is more light outside, a brighter image will be created on the inside. Therefore, the image wil be a positive one. This is the case for all cameras. The image created is always positive. However, in the case of a camera that uses film, the chemical process generates an image on the film that is dark where more light has hit the film and light where less light has hit the film. It is the chemical process that produces the negative image and not the camera itself. All cameras, including a camera obscura, will produce an inverted and reflected image, so that the image is upside down and back to front. The reason is that light travels in straight lines. It is easy to simulate this by drawing several straight lines through a small aperture. You will see that a beam of light coming from one side of the object will end up on the other side of the image.