Daguerreotype
Invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, daguerreotype was almost completely superseded by 1860 with new, less expensive processes yielding more readily viewable images. In the late 20th century, there was a revival of daguerreotypy by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.
History of photographic lens design
Charles Chevalier's Paris optical firm produced lenses for both Niépce and Daguerre for their experiments in photography. In 1829, Chevalier created an achromatic lens (a two-element lens made from "crown glass" and "flint glass") to cut down on chromatic aberration for Daguerre's experiments. Chevalier reversed the lens (originally designed as a telescope objective) to produce a much flatter image plane and modified the achromat to bring the blue end of the spectrum to a sharper focus. Reversing the lens caused severe spherical aberration so a narrow aperture stop was necessary in front of the lens. On 22 June 1839, Daguerre contracted Alphonse Giroux (France) to manufacture his daguerreotype apparatus. The Giroux Le Daguerreotype camera used an almost 16-inch (40 cm) focal length reversed achromatic lens with a f/16 stop in front of it made by Chevalier to take 6½×8½ inch (about 16.5×21.5 cm) images.