Today, The DV Shop is celebrating our 18th Anniversary. And what a wild and amazing 18 years it as been.
When we opened on May 7th, 2001 it was an exciting time for digital video. Final Cut Pro 2 had just come out, Firewire 400 was revolutionizing everything, and DVD authoring was just becoming available to the masses. The best Apple computer you could get was a G4 733 MHz (Mhz not GHz) with a 64MB (yes MB) video card.
Our mandate when we opened was to specialize in this newish thing called MiniDV. To evangelize it, to offer products catering to it, and to promote it. We thought it was the future, and Canada could use a store focused on it.
We had no money when we opened the store. We were a couple levels below shoe-string. We got through the first year by racking up massive credit card debt. We were the new kid on the block, competing against some very established companies - Precision Camera, Extra Bytes, Solutions in Computing, Merkle Camera, MacWarehouse… none of whom are in business today. We were the little scrappy underdog, with the dingy store with the terrible carpet. And we almost pulled the plug and closed down twice in our first year. But we kept going.
How have things changed in the industry since 2001? Blackmagic Design, the industry behemoth, hadn't even come out with their first capture card yet. That would be in 2002 with their Decklink card. HiDef was being talked about, and it was available on the most expensive cameras, but it was more of a promising future concept than a practical reality. The phrase "4K" hadn't even been invented yet. There were no LED lights, Facebook, or RED cameras. The elusive "film look", the holy grail of video shooting, that was impossible to do in 2001? Now you can do it on a $799 Canon Rebel.
And if you came into our store, claiming you were from the future, and said in 2019 you will shoot high quality video on your cell phone that you can stream in real time to the internet, and that there will be these miniature helicopters with cameras attached called Drones that can shoot 4K video and cost under $2000, we would have laughed our heads off and called the cops, because obviously these things would not be doable for so little money in such a short amount of time. Maybe in 2040 or 2050, but not 2019.
Just to give some perspective on how much things have changed in 18 years, here's some comparative pricing.
Hard Drives
When we opened on May 7th, 2001 it was an exciting time for digital video. Final Cut Pro 2 had just come out, Firewire 400 was revolutionizing everything, and DVD authoring was just becoming available to the masses. The best Apple computer you could get was a G4 733 MHz (Mhz not GHz) with a 64MB (yes MB) video card.
Our mandate when we opened was to specialize in this newish thing called MiniDV. To evangelize it, to offer products catering to it, and to promote it. We thought it was the future, and Canada could use a store focused on it.
We had no money when we opened the store. We were a couple levels below shoe-string. We got through the first year by racking up massive credit card debt. We were the new kid on the block, competing against some very established companies - Precision Camera, Extra Bytes, Solutions in Computing, Merkle Camera, MacWarehouse… none of whom are in business today. We were the little scrappy underdog, with the dingy store with the terrible carpet. And we almost pulled the plug and closed down twice in our first year. But we kept going.
How have things changed in the industry since 2001? Blackmagic Design, the industry behemoth, hadn't even come out with their first capture card yet. That would be in 2002 with their Decklink card. HiDef was being talked about, and it was available on the most expensive cameras, but it was more of a promising future concept than a practical reality. The phrase "4K" hadn't even been invented yet. There were no LED lights, Facebook, or RED cameras. The elusive "film look", the holy grail of video shooting, that was impossible to do in 2001? Now you can do it on a $799 Canon Rebel.
And if you came into our store, claiming you were from the future, and said in 2019 you will shoot high quality video on your cell phone that you can stream in real time to the internet, and that there will be these miniature helicopters with cameras attached called Drones that can shoot 4K video and cost under $2000, we would have laughed our heads off and called the cops, because obviously these things would not be doable for so little money in such a short amount of time. Maybe in 2040 or 2050, but not 2019.
Just to give some perspective on how much things have changed in 18 years, here's some comparative pricing.
Hard Drives
In 2001, the biggest hard drive you could get was 75GB, and a LaCie Firewire 75GB cost over $500.
In 2006, the biggest external hard drive was 600GB, and the LaCie Firewire 600GB cost $529.
In 2019, the LaCie USB3 10TB costs $419.
Memory Cards
In 2019, the LaCie USB3 10TB costs $419.
Memory Cards
In 2006, the SanDisk Ultra 8GB Compact Flash card cost $1199.
In 2019, an 8GB SD card costs $9.
DVD Burners
DVD Burners
In 2001, the internal Pioneer A03 DVD Burner cost $1499.
In 2019, an internal BluRay Burner sets you back $79.
So with all these thoughts and looking back makes us wonder - what are we going to be saying in 2029 about 2019?
Finally, we would like to thank all our loyal customers for shopping with us year after year, and riding the digital wave with us.
So with all these thoughts and looking back makes us wonder - what are we going to be saying in 2029 about 2019?
Finally, we would like to thank all our loyal customers for shopping with us year after year, and riding the digital wave with us.
