Skaife's pistolgraph camera, 1858, made by Thomas Skaife of Blackheath.

This brass camera with a Dallmeyer lens has been described variously as the first hand camera, the first miniature camera, or the first 'detective' camera. It accommodated 28mm diameter exposures on wet collodion plates. The double-flap shutter worked by elastic band and achieved exposures as brief as 1/10th second. Few were ever made as it was not entirely successful as a camera; results were best viewed with a magnifying glass.