Passion is too incapable a word to explain what camera means to Farid Shaikh. Life minus camera is equal to nothing for this camera lover who over years has gathered over 2000 cameras from across the globe. So much so that his collection is registered as the biggest collection of cameras in Asia.

Off NIBM road, ahead of Kalyan mangal karyalay, a small building named Farid Manzil is a museum every inch of which has a tale of historic evolution of photography and camera. Welcoming the visitors is Farid Shaikh, who takes the guests on a euphoric journey- photography and its development. His eyes glow, eyebrows raise and hands start playing with the cameras as Shaikh starts talking about his most prized possessions- his cameras.

"This is one of the oldest cameras in the world. It is a Kodak box camera. You will be surprised to know that these cameras were made of cardboards. This is the aperture. This is the viewfinder. The first camera had only one viewfinder and the disadvantage of it was that one could take only vertical photographs with this. The next version of cameras came with two view finders so that vertical as well as horizontal pictures were possible," says Shaikh, explaining the oldest of the box cameras from his collection.

An irreplaceable part of Shaikh's collection is the Baby brownie series of cameras that brought about a revolution in the structure of cameras. "One of the baby brownies had an open view finder. But there was a challenge in that as well. The frame and the view would mismatch after clicking, as the shutter was located below the lens. This problem was eliminated in 1945 with 127 Baby Brownie where the shutter button was brought on the upper side of the camera. This was the foundation of the modern age cameras. Today's cameras have a shutter on top and this was the beginning of modern day camera designs. In fact they also came with optical viewfinder," adds he.

Honoured with countless awards, Shaikh's collection boasts revolutionary cameras in the history like the 12 exposure Kodak reflex twin lens, E and F models of Baby brownie and so on. And that is not enough because the collection has a wide variety of makes like Ensign, Zeiss, Gevabox, Agfa and so on.

"Let me tell you an interesting story about how flash came into existence. There was a time when Magnesium powder was used to generate the flash. They used to put Magnesium powder in the place of the flash and at the time of exposure- simply put an ignited cigarette stick in the powder. The flash generated used to provide light for the exposure. What came later were Magnesium silver coils. Today's electronic flash has its roots in the Magnesium powder," smiles he.

Another section in Shaikh's museum is the Folding cameras section. "I have four series of the Agfa Isolette. The cameras in this series boasted of accessories like self-timer, range finder, three shutter speeds and so on. Some time during 1950s, the Zeiss Ikon, one of the best coupled, professional cameras was introduced," says Shaikh playing with the Zeiss Ikon in his collection.

Another fascinating machine that finds its place in the collection is the Kodak waist pocket camera. With an open slot provided by the side of the camera, this marvelous machine allows the user to write the description of the venue where the photograph was clicked. And this was a part of the revolution in as early as 1885. Shaikh has a 15-lens camera manufactured by Warner Brothers. In one go this efficient camera, using 15 lenses used to produce 15 copies of the same view. The First World War had witnessed tiny spy cameras and Shaikh has a collection of spy cameras. For instance a camera in the lighter, camera in a gun, binocular, camera with a radio and so on. Nordetta, made in Germany is one of the first cameras in 3D photography. The Kodak Panorama camera the lens of which covers 180 degrees thus capturing the entire 180 degree view in one go is also an eye catcher.

"I also have the first video camera by JVC. It was created in 1979 and it came with a VCR, battery and a charger. RCA small video camera came with a monitor as well and I have that," adds Shaikh. An entire shelf is dedicated to Polaroid cameras. "These cameras were invented by Polaroid Land in 1960s. This was the introduction of instant photographs. This is where we find the roots of instant passport size photos," explains Shaikh handling the Polaroid 600 professional camera from his collection that he brought from Egypt.

The historic journey in the dreamy world of photography smoothly lands one into the mesmerising world of modern age cameras like Nikon, Minolta and so on. This collection of machines used to preserve memories leaves the visitors creating a valuable imprint, the image of which cannot be erased. And if dreams could be captured, this one is an image perfect. Isn't it?