What is the first camera?

The name "Camera" derives from the Words "Camera Obscura," which means "dark chamber." The principle of the pinhole was understood as far back as Aristotle's day, but the first good description of a pinhole camera obscura dates to sometime early in the 11th century when the Arab scholar Hassan Ibn Hassan, otherwise known as Alhazen, described the effect of a projected image through a pinhole into a darkened room as a means of safely observing solar eclipses. The "chamber" eventually evolved into a portable box for use as an artist's sketching aid. A lens was attached to replace the pinhole for the first time in 1550. The first successful use of the camera for photographic purposes was in 1816, when a Frenchmen named Nicephore Niepce made negative images on sensitized paper, though he was not able to fix them to prevent further action of light. He had succeeded in making permanent fixed imaged in the camera by 1826, but the resulting image was more like a lithographic plate than a modern photograph. So as you can see, the camera has evolved in both purpose and form over many centuries.