Why do we need cameras and lenses? Isn't it possible just to use a mirror with a light sensitive emulsion? One look in the mirror and then develop the portrait?

-- Tibor (dubbelansluten@hotmail.com), August 20, 2001

Answers

What?

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), August 20, 2001.

I'd tell you but you're better of if you figure it out yourself. I'll give you a hint: It won't work.

Try it using a sheet of photo paper and report your results.

-- charlie_strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), August 20, 2001.

Tibor, everytime you want to see a fresh portrait of yourself, take a look in that mirror of yours! :-)

BTW, the question is interesting somehow, you CAN see a picture in the mirror, but you can't fix it there with a photographic emulsion. Something for an expert in physics to answer!

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), August 20, 2001.

One look in the mirror and you are using two lenes without knowing it, your eyes.

-- Chris Gillis (chris@photogenica.net), August 20, 2001.

Yes, that's the answer! A mirror is just reflecting the light, and the eyes are focusing them to a picture. Without the eyes lenses there would be no "picture" in the mirror!

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), August 20, 2001.

Asking that kind of question is how great inventions are discovered. Keep it up. William Mitchell, (former Senior Physicist, NASA).

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), August 20, 2001.

Too late ... Already invented and the good news is you don't need even a mirror. Put a piece of photographic paper in a shoebox (you don't want to have spoiled your emulsion by bright sunlight don't you) Take needle, make a hole in the shoebox, steer for 3 minutes in the hole, develop the picture.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), August 20, 2001.

This is your mind on drugs!

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), August 21, 2001.

i think the answer lies in high school physics lessons: a mirror forms an apparent image - if u place a screen near the mirror, no real image can be captured on screen. on the other hand, a converging lens would form a real, diminished image on a screen (in this case the film)

-- chow sf (agreeable@hotmail.com), August 22, 2001.