Toronto. Of the two earliest photographic processes, most photographers chose to use the Daguerreotype. It was free (outside England), had the best resolution by far, and had good contrast. But it was limited to one plate unless the plate was copied – over and over.
On the other hand, Fox Talbot‘s process – the Calotype – could make any number of prints, but it suffered a softer contrast and far lower resolution.
The emulsion could be applied to glass and sensitized, but it was so slow that it was only suitable for contact prints, not for use in a camera. This all changed around 1851 when the Englishman, Frederick Scott-Archer, announced his new wet-plate process. The process was fast enough to be used in a camera on a tripod – still too slow to need a sub-second shutter. The gun-cotton based emulsion coated a glass plate and was sensitized with a silver -nitrate solution.
Immediately after the glass plate was sensitized and before it dried, the medium had to be exposed in the camera and developed. If it should dry, the glass plate would become so insensitive that it was useless in a camera and would not be successfully developed.
The sticky goo that oozed off the wet plates slowly destroyed the cameras making wet-plate area cameras obvious and extremely rare in decent condition.
