Laptop for film editing

RichyX

I'm currently looking to buy a new laptop for film editing on the go, as my 3 year old Dell is a bit short on battery life for train journeys from Tralee to Dublin. Hoping to spend around 1K on it.

Being a Final Cut Pro user in college I had been considering a new MacBook, until the announcement that they lack a firewire port. Is this a real killer blow? Or do new camcorders tend to have USB as well?
Currently use the college's cameras, but I'll probably be looking to get my own next year.

Now I'm considering getting another windows laptop and learning Adobe Premiere. Seems to be the value option, but I'm not familiar with Premiere at all.

Anyone have any recommendations?

BlitzKrieg

the main thing for video editing is ram, lots and lots of ram.

Aside from that a firewire port is still the most used form of connection among video cameras, anyway decent graphics card will be fine (depending of course if you intend to do alot of visual effects or not). And a nice screen are the only other musts. Hard drive space is not a major issue because using externals works surprisingly well (though you are intending to edit while on trains etc, so it could be prove problematic.)

Its weird that the new macbook doesnt have a firewire port, macs always have firewire ports in my experiance, a PC is more likely not to unless you specify it.

monkeyfudge

RichyX wrote: »

Being a Final Cut Pro user in college I had been considering a new MacBook, until the announcement that they lack a firewire port. Is this a real killer blow?

They have a Firewire 800 port. Which allows for a faster transfer rate but you won't find it to be as widespread in other devices yet.

I believe you can use a bilingual cable to connect it to older Firewire 400 devices.

Goodshape

monkeyfudge wrote: »

They have a Firewire 800 port.

Are you sure the new ones do (just released last week)?

Can't see a mention of Firewire on the tech specs page :
http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html


//edit the MB Pros have the Firewire 800 :
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

BlitzKrieg

the macbook pro has firewire 800 http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/features.html


Weird that apple are not putting firewire on all their machines. Always was one of their strengths over PC's

monkeyfudge

Goodshape wrote: »

Are you sure the new ones do (just released last week)?

Can't see a mention of Firewire on the tech specs page :
http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html


//edit the MB Pros have the Firewire 800 :
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html

Oh right. It was much easier back in the days when they were called Powerbooks and iBooks.

It's worth spending the extra few quid for the MacBook Pro if you plan to do video editing. I guess that's what Apple are trying to force people to do with the lack of the firewire port.

RichyX

Thanks for the replies.

I've thought about the MacBook Pro alright. Just seems to be too much money and too much bulk for what I want it for.
The cheapest I can get one of the new models for in the US is just over 1600€.

I noticed most Toshiba's still have a firewire port.
Thinking of getting one with a 13-14 inch screen for traveling and a larger LCD for use at home.

What do ye reckon on FCP vs. Premiere?

johnny_ultimate

Currently considering a MacBook too for editing. Use Final Cut Pro in college but won't be able to afford that so going to go with Express. Question is should I go for a standard MacBook with 4 GB RAM or a Pro with 2 GB? Firewire isn't really of concern to me at the moment, since my own camcorder and college EX3s are both USB. The Pro of course has the bigger screen and graphics card, but the MacBook with superior RAM and fairly similair specs is 150 euro cheaper or so (with Express preinstalled). Suggestions?

BlitzKrieg

Ram is foremost.

We are at a point where you dont need to have the latest graphics card to do video editing, and if you are only using express then the one included in the macbook should be fine (geforce 9400, yeah thats fine).

But Ram is something you cannot be cheap about, take as much as you can if you can.

The screen is a matter of personal taste. But I assume you would have the capability to hook the macbook up to other monitors, which case the screen is really only for when your working on the go and you can dual monitor (again ram is important) at home etc.


on the final cut vs premiere argument. Meh, I cant really tell them apart anymore aside from colour scheme, the latest versions of both have been very good, the earlier version of premiere pro (1.0) was horrendous. But they've fixed it, and Final Cut Pro is fine. Dont know about Express etc, never really had to work them (yes I am an elitist snob when it comes to editing software.)

RichyX

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

We are at a point where you dont need to have the latest graphics card to do video editing, and if you are only using express then the one included in the macbook should be fine (geforce 9400, yeah thats fine).

How do you think one of the newer integrated graphics cards would manage?
Specifically the Intel 4500MHD that appears on plenty of new laptops.
It looks to be a massive step up from the Intel X3100 that the old MacBook came with.

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

on the final cut vs premiere argument. Meh, I cant really tell them apart anymore aside from colour scheme,

That's good to hear.
Just using Premiere on a Windows laptop would save me a lot hassle I really don't need with MacBooks or dual booting.

RichyX

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Currently considering a MacBook too for editing. Use Final Cut Pro in college but won't be able to afford that so going to go with Express. Question is should I go for a standard MacBook with 4 GB RAM or a Pro with 2 GB? Firewire isn't really of concern to me at the moment, since my own camcorder and college EX3s are both USB. The Pro of course has the bigger screen and graphics card, but the MacBook with superior RAM and fairly similair specs is 150 euro cheaper or so (with Express preinstalled). Suggestions?

What brand of camcorder do you have that has usb?

I'm starting to think it'll be worth my while investing in a reasonable camcorder of my own.
The college only has a coupe of old Sony VX2100's that are in serious demand this year.