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.

... contd.