Cameras are one of the most frequent areas for ‘jewish invention’ myths with the false claims that jews invented the instant camera, (1) the camera phone, (2) the photo booth (3) and colour photography/film. (4)
Another camera-related ‘jewish invention’ myth is the claim that jews invented the first portable camera.
‘MNews’ – for example – claims that:
‘Emanuel Goldberg – Early Compact Cameras
German-Jewish engineer and inventor Emanuel Goldberg created one of the world’s first portable cameras. His designs paved the way for modern photography and the popularization of personal cameras.’ (5)
The problem with this of course is that it is absolute nonsense.
Goldberg – who lived between 1881 and 1970 – was recruited by the ‘Carl Zeiss Stiftung’ in 1917 to help run its photographic products subsidiary ‘Internationale Camera Aktiengesellschaft’ (better known as ICA) and is known for having produced the ‘Kinamo’ film camera in 1921 and to have been involved with creating Zeiss’ ‘Contax I’ still camera in 1932. (6)
Later in 1926 that ICA merged with three other photographic companies to form ‘Zeiss Ikon’. Despite claims to the contrary Goldberg didn’t run – or ‘help run’ – ‘Zeiss Ikon’ but rather was basically a leading photographic researcher. (7)
What I think ‘MNews’ is doing here – and it is common enough with ‘jewish invention’ claims – is to (accidentally) confuse Goldberg’s Kinamo film camera of 1921 – which was an early portable film camera with portable still cameras. I will deal with the Kinamo claim separately as I actually think that is what ‘MNews’ is thinking of.
Since the truth is the portable camera was the Giroux daguerreotype camera of 1839 that was invented by the French art restorer-cum-inventor Alphonse Giroux. (8) The first modern portable camera as we’d think of modern portable cameras was invented in 1913 – although he had been working on the concept since 1905 – by the German photographer Oskar Barnack and was called the ‘Ur-Leica’ (lit. ‘Original Leica’) as it was the basis for the famous line of ‘Leica’ cameras produced by ‘Ernst Leitz GmbH’ (better known simply as ‘Leitz’). (9)
It has absolutely nothing to do with Emanuel Goldberg who doesn’t really even figure prominently in the history of the camera.
So, no; the portable camera was not a ‘jewish invention’ at all!
References
(1) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myth-the-instant
(2) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-camera
(3) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-photo
(4) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-colour-photography
(5) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions
(6) Cf. Michael Keeble Buckland, 2006, ‘Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine: Information, Invention, and Political Forces’, 1st Edition, Libraries Unlimited: Westport
(7) Idem.
(8) Todd Gustavson, 2009, ‘Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital’, 1st Edition, Sterling Signature: New York, pp. 8-9
(9) Ibid., pp. 212-213
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