The oldest surviving photograph took roughly 8 hours to expose

In 1826 or 1827, Nicéphore Niépce captured a view from his window in France onto a pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen, using a camera obscura. The exposure was so long that sunlight shows on both sides of the courtyard in the final image. It predates the Daguerreotype process, which Niépce's own later partner Louis Daguerre developed after his death.

— Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras — c. 1826–1827