Largest private collection of movie cameras-world
record set by Dimitris Pistiolas
ATHENS, Grece -- A retired postman Dimitris Pistiolas,
78, has a collecttion of 937 cinema cameras in the basement
of his home-setting the world record for the Largest
private collection of movie cameras
. 
Photo: Camera collector Dimitris Pistiolas
checks a camera at his museum in central Athens. Photo Thanassis
Stavrakis /AP ( enlarge
photo
)
Dimitris Pistiolas, camera collector, said,
"When I get a camera in my hands I feel like it's New Year's
Day and that I'm getting a present, like a little kid. The
first thing I will do is examine it. Then I will restore it
and I will put it there, in its place, to stay."
Admission to the world's
largest private collection of movie cameras
is by
invitation only. The owner is a retired postman, who's been
collecting cameras for more than 60 years.
All of the vintage equipment is on display in
a tiny basement of about 25 square meters. Cameras, some made
more than a century ago, fill cabinets and cover every inch
of wall space.
( enlarge
photo
)
Dimitris Pistiolas, started buying cameras
when he was 15. He's never stopped. Now he's 78. His collection
has burgeoned to nearly a thousand vintage cameras and projectors.
Dimitris Pistiolas said, "It is an effort
that dates back to 1960. I made many sacrifices, because this
material couldn't be bought even by the richest person. There
is no shop where they can be bought. You must search for them,
chase them for many years to find them. I had the patience,
the craze, the passion."
Pistiolas insists he'll never stop collecting.
Cameras, he says, are his great love.
Ronald Grant, a director at the Cinema Museum
in London, says it takes time and money to hunt such cameras
down at fairs and auction rooms.
"There's a lot of investment there in time, and
knowledge, and of course memory. Once you have a few hundred,
then you have to remember, 'Have I got this one?'" Grant says.
"You can't just buy these in a shop."
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Saturday, December 6, 2008
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