Lighten-Lantern Technology
Historical Equivalent: Cameras, motion picture cameras
Created by Daguerre Eletech in the late 1850s, the Lighten-Lantern revolutionized the newspaper industry with its ability to capture realistic photographs of everyday people and objects by binding light elementals to specially prepared plates, known as lighten-plates and exposed to light for an brief period of time. The light elemental's response to the light is imprinted upon the still plate for later transfer to paper. In darker environments where a light elemental might have trouble capturing ambient light, lightning elementals are used to provide a brilliant flash of light.
More recently, moving picture lighten-lanterns have begun to be produced that use numerous elementals that are exposed at the same time to speed the process and allow for the capture of multiple images at the same time.
Rarity. Still lighten-plate images are extremely expensive and limited to industrial (business, news papers) and or the rich, while moving lighten-plate images are a rare luxury limited to a single studio in capital cities.
Bound Elemental. Light elementals. As moving lighten images require multiple elemental colors to be bound and light elementals are typically only found on elemental planes, moving lighten-plate cameras are extremely rare.
What do they look like?
Lighten-lanterns are bulky wooden boxes with large lenses attached to one side. Gears adjust the lens and control the brightness of the lightning elemental, while a control post inscribed with runes releases the light elemental and exposes the lighten-plate. Underneath, a tripod can be screwed into the base to further stabilize the image and prevent the light elemental from moving too much inside the box.
How are they operated?
Lighten-lanterns are fairly difficult for the novice to use unless trained, and require a DC 15 Intelligence (Tinker's Tools) check to calibrate and use. The process for converting single-color lighten-lantern plates into clear photos is difficult and prone to blurry images, but a trained professional that takes their time can make a DC 25 Intelligence (Tinker's Tools) check to have usable prints.
A moving picture lighten-lantern is more difficult to operate than the single plates and requires a DC 20 Intelligence (Tinker's Tools) check to calibrate and use, which is why they are almost only used in lighten-lantern studios where the lighten-lantern can be set up once for multiple uses. Converting these films for use requires a similar process to the single color lighten-lantern and is similarly a DC 25 Intelligence (Tinker's Tools) check.
Where are they found?
Still lighten-lanterns are regularly found at major newspapers, entrusted to their best reporters, and most major cities have at least one professional lighten studio. Moving picture cameras are novelties and while some rich might own them, they are mostly found in a singular few "lighten-film" studios. A few major cities in Europa - including Novandria - feature a Lighten-film house for viewing these often short films.
