The Man Who Owns a World Record 4,500 Cameras

“The Light Collector” is a new 3.5-minute short film about Dilish Parekh, the man who holds the Guinness World Record for “Largest Collection of Cameras” by amassing a collection of about 4,500 cameras.

The film is by Mumbai, India-based filmmaker and “camera freak” Dheerankur Upasak, who sat down with the famous camera collector to hear about his life story.

Parekh started collecting cameras back in the 1970s. Over the years, he continually purchased more and more antique cameras, with each one costing less than $15. One of the crown jewels of his collection so far is a Leica 250 Reporter, which is worth about $80,000:

Leica 250. Saw it yesterday when I met mr. Dilish Parekh the Guinness book record holder for maximum no of cameras. Approximate price $80000 ??? #leica #vintage #vintagecamera #rare #superrare #film #photography #guiness #oldschool #expensive #dream

A photo posted by Dheerankur (@dheerankur) on Aug 15, 2016 at 11:19pm PDT

“You name the camera and I have it,” Parekh says. “It’s not a big deal to break my world record, but I own about 4,500 cameras right now. Even if you buy a camera every day, it will take you twelve years. By that time, I will [be] way ahead.”