A dentist, Dr Arcot Vasantha Rao Arun, currently holds the world record for the largest collection of stills cameras, totaling a whopping 5,707 cameras. That’s according to record-breaking global authority Guinness World Records. Even Digital Camera World's Editor in Chief and resident camera collector, James Artaius, can’t beat that!
The story on the Guinness World Records website details how Dr Arun caught the collecting bug when he bought a twin-lens reflex camera in a flea market during the late 1990s. By 2017, the camera-loving medical professional had amassed nearly 2,000 cameras and opened Dr Arun’s Camera Museum in Chennai, India, to display his collection.
Turns out, that’s when things really started to snowball – first smashing the record for the world's largest collection of unique vintage film cameras (which stood at 895, until Arun beat it with 1,645), and then toppling the previous record for total cameras (4,425).
Make sure you check out the Guinness World Records’ video, which illustrates just how incredible an array of cameras Dr Arun has amassed – including models that date back as far as 1895.
Throughout the video you can see tens of antique large-format cameras, glass cabinets filled up with TLR cameras, row upon row of film and digital SLRs, and what must be hundreds (maybe thousands) of compact cameras.
Dr Arun, I salute you. What an incredible collection and an amazing slice of imaging history. If I ever visit Chennai, I know where I’m heading first!
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