Jim Epstein on How Cheap Cameras Changed the World

In 1995, a decade before the launch of
YouTube, Sony released an unassuming digital video camera called
the VX1000 with little fanfare. It cost $3,500—or about 1/30th the
price of the standard camera used by television crews. At the time,
executive producers and studio executives were the gatekeepers of
the screen, thanks in part to the astoundingly expensive and
technically cumbersome camera rigs and editing systems required to
produce moving pictures. The idea that a single person could earn a
living shooting video with a camera that cost less than a used car
was absurd.

By eliminating the technical obstacles to filmmaking, notes Jim
Epstein, new tools make creating a great movie as easy as writing a
great book.

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