Museum of J. M. Petzval in Spišská Belá

The opening part of the exhibition is dedicated to the life, career and work of the prominent mathematician, physicist, university professor, scientist and pioneer in the field of photographic optics, Jozef Maximilián Petzval. The room is decorated with historical furniture reminiscent of his studio. The flat material is complemented by copies of drawings of his portable device, landscape lens and drawings of lenses for cinematographic projection. The display case also contains the first all-metal device - the daguerreoscope (a gift from the Voigtländer company in 1965) with a portrait lens, which J. M. Petzval calculated as the first in the world in 1840. This lens had an excellent aperture of 1:3.7 for its time and was 14 times brighter than the lenses used by Daguerre. The device was the subject of a lifelong dispute between J. M. Petzval and the Viennese optician P. W. F. Voigtländer, who manufactured it. His discovery was a harbinger of the enormous development of photographic, recording and projection technology, which is also documented by the collection of lenses on display. In the middle of the room is a travel camera from 1890 with a landscape lens, on which J. M. Petzval also participated in the calculations. In addition, he dealt with optics for microscopes, telescopes and also worked with searchlights. Modifications of his lenses are also represented by two freely stored lenses used for astrophotography.
In addition to Jozef, his brother Otto Baltazár (1809 - 1893) was born in the house where the museum is located, and he became famous as a mathematician, scientist and engineer, the author of many textbooks on elementary and higher mathematics, technical mechanics, hydraulic engineering and astronomy. The short films shown from the lives of both brothers, edited by documentarian Ivan Rumanovský, complement the text part of the exhibition.

The second part of the exhibition presents in a clear form the historical development of technology from the first experiments with the camera obscura to the first photograph from 1826. The presented two-dimensional material related to the invention of photographic technology in its early period is represented by pioneers such as J. N. Niépce, L. J. Daguérre, W. H. Talbot, C. A. Steinheil and Ch. Chevaliér. The exhibition also includes several daguerreotypes, ambotypes and ferrotypes. The atmosphere and origins of indoor photography are reminiscent of a period-arranged photo studio from the early 20th century. The "daguerreotype period" is followed by a separate thematic unit, in which photographic devices and tools of the most diverse types from the period of Petzval's active work are presented, up to the latest ones, including digital ones. In fourteen separate display cases, sets of photographic devices are installed, divided according to the usual typology and format. Specifically, these are: studio, travel, folding, strut, box, single-lens and double-lens reflex cameras, instant photography devices, pocket, miniature, compact, stereoscopic, panoramic, special and digital. The exhibits present renowned manufacturers of photographic equipment, such as the following companies: Goldmann, Goerz, Hüttig, Voigtländer & Sohn, Zeiss Ikon, Ica, Ihagee, Ernemann, Ensing, Exakta, Krügener, Contessa, Nettel, Plaubel & Co., Kodak, Franke & Heidecke, Leitz, Agfa, Balda, Optikotechna, Hasselblad and others.
From the equipment, well-known historical camera designs are exhibited, including some unique ones.
The exhibition also includes studio cameras, their development series is among the oldest in the collection. Their professional era is commemorated by collections of family photographs and photographs of so-called business card formats. Visitors can see storage and detective chambers with a mechanism for changing plates. Unique exhibits include Krügener's detective chamber in the form of a book. There are also the first travel and reporter's devices and cameras from the beginnings of stereography. Of the box devices, Kodak cameras are installed, in which the founder of the company G. W. Eastman replaced the glass plates with roll film in 1888. The reasonable price, operation and company service enabled their expansion. All types of used standardized formats are represented here, from glass plates to medium-format roll films (6 x 9, 6 x 6) to small-format (for 35 mm film). To clarify the individual types of the above-mentioned exhibits, the basic types and formats used with a brief technical description are shown. For the sake of clarity, a technical drawing of the construction of a given type of device is provided.
A chronological overview of the development of photographic technology from the camera obscura to the present day is documented by a separate panel. The exhibited "Bromograph" - a device that was used to produce them - also has a direct link to the collection of period black-and-white and color postcards. The "Polyfoto Mark 5" device, designed for multiplying photographs, can also be considered unconventional.

One of the showcases is dedicated to the production of cameras manufactured in Czechoslovakia, which are represented by the brands Optikotechna, Meopta, Kolář, Druopta and others. There is also the legendary Flexaret binocular SLR in several modifications, as well as Spektaretta, Mikroma and Stereomikroma.

Post-war production is also represented by cameras from the former GDR (Exa, Exakta, Praktica, Praktiflex, Praktisix, Pentacon and others) and from the Soviet Union (Fed, Zorki, Kiev, Moskva, Zenit and others), which were very popular among amateurs. The purposeful acquisition of the Slovak Technical Museum over the past two decades has enabled the exhibition to be supplemented with exhibits from major European, American and especially Japanese manufacturers who brought significant innovations in the field of analog and digital photographic technology (Kodak, Nikon, Sony, Minolta, Panasonic, Olympus, Chinon, Mamiya, Yashica). Lenses of various types (standard, wide-angle, zoom and telephoto) are installed in a separate showcase.

In addition to the extensive collection of cameras, the visitor has the opportunity to familiarize himself with the development of photographic equipment from kerosene lamps to copying devices and enlargers. The installed photo camera from the 1970s, equipped with the necessary equipment and tools, documents the "wet process" of making black-and-white and color photographs and negatives. Large-scale panels in one of the rooms present photography as a medium. They highlight not only the technical, but also the social and cultural aspect of photography and introduce its types: reportage, journalistic, portrait, artistic and advertising. There is also an aerial and satellite image. The history of photography itself as a discipline has always been closely related to the development of photographic technology, which had a significant impact on its development.

The room on the ground floor is dedicated to the history of cinematographic technology. This part of the exhibition, in addition to basic information about the history of cinematography in the world and in Slovakia, briefly represents the development of the series of cameras of the most diverse designs and shooting techniques, projection devices from the beginning of film technology, cinema 35 and 16 mm projectors (Imperator 35, AEG and Meopton II), up to the equipment of the recent period. Among the manufacturers we can mention H. Ernemann, Páthé Fréres, Arnold & Richter, Siemens & Halske, Baťa Zlín, Paillard, Bell & Howell, Bolex, Eumig, Meopta, KMZ and others. All film formats 35, 16, 9.5 and 8 mm are represented. The exhibition offers the possibility of screening films on period and contemporary projection devices.
The museum exhibits more than 600 3D installed on an exhibition area of ​​approximately 280 m².