buying a mac and fcp advice

wha

the apple store website seems to be down or has a broken link or something, so I can't access the Ireland part. Just looking for advice from people here.
I want to get final cut pro and some sort of mac book because I'll be doing editing for a few different projects I'm working on, and would love to even get some work as a freelance editor.

Can people advise me about what's the minimum it'll cost, which model I should go for that's best for running fcp, and if there's anywhere you can get macs for cheaper than the website?

I was going to buy one a few months ago but decided instead to just use sony vegas on my windows laptop.. and what a mistake that was! Really don't like vegas as much as I liked fcp in college.

I just want to hear some advice about macs and fcp from people who have some experience before I go spending money on one that might not be the best model for what I want to do.

JG009

FCP is well over rated.

AnonoBoy

JG009 wrote: »

FCP is well over rated.

For a serious editor FCP is vastly better than Sony Vegas. Avid is better than FCP I find though. And Avid isn't worth getting on Mac because they don't update it as often as the PC version.

Realistically you should spend as much as you can afford. I'd advise you to with a MacBook Pro with as much memory and processing power as possible.

If you are going to be doing a lot of graphics heavy work then you want the render time to be as short as possible.

ciencin

15 inch SECOND HAND macbook pro with 2GB ram and ~200GB hard drive will be about €700-900
15 inch NEW dell laptop with 4GB ram and ~400GB hard drive will be around €600...

I work with FCP on a macbook pro and with Premiere on a new(ish) Toshiba laptop. Personally I dont find FCP that much better then Premiere, in fact for simple cutting and throwing a few layers of audio I find I get the job get done in Premiere a bit faster.

If you already own a laptop with 4GB ram just get CS5. If you're going to be working with HD files (especially from prosumer cameras) then CS5 has quite a few advantages over FCP.

The whole "I'm a professional so I need to work on a macbook or FCP" is rubbish. Look at Avatar, they edited it on Avid and there is no way FCP would have been able to render 25 layers of audio without lagging like crazy.

AnonoBoy

ciencin wrote: »

The whole "I'm a professional so I need to work on a macbook or FCP" is rubbish. Look at Avatar, they edited it on Avid and there is no way FCP would have been able to render 25 layers of audio without lagging like crazy.

Avid is better than FCP and far superior to Premiere so your example isn't really helping your point there.

Also rendering audio files is not difficult, FCP would be able to handle it, it's video that causes lagging generally. Plus the 25 layers of audio or whatever would have been added in the sound design which is done in a separate program not in the offline edit.

The thing is though if OP isn't just going to be doing simple cutting a few layers of audio then they need a decent program. It's not just the rendering though - if you have a big project, media management comes into play too.

Di0genes

ciencin wrote: »

The whole "I'm a professional so I need to work on a macbook or FCP" is rubbish. Look at Avatar, they edited it on Avid and there is no way FCP would have been able to render 25 layers of audio without lagging like crazy.

I'm running MC5 and Avid still only can handle 24 audio channels and Avatar was cut on MC4 and could only handle 16 audio channels. Suggests you might not know what you are talking about.

JG009

Maybe it is because I have a monster of a PC over clocked to a decent speed but I find Vegas suits everything I need. No way I would buy a mac just for FCP. I run Protools on the PC too and it is bullet proof.

Pat1970

Only buy a MacBook Pro if portability is required.
Buy an iMac instead. Bigger screen and faster processor.

I have an iMac for video editing and a PC for everything else i.e. accounts, photoshop, after effects, email, internet etc.

I have a 5 year old iMac at the moment and it is every bit as good as the first day I took it out of the box.

Watch out for the version of FCP you install on the iMac as only the most up to date version is compatable with all video formats.

Networking the PC to the Mac is childsplay too so you can download onto your PC and fly them over to your iMac if you need it for your edit.

For the price you'll pay for a MacBook Pro, you could get yourself both an iMac AND a decent laptop with a core processor. Then you could be working on a DVD intro in After Effects on the laptop while the iMac renders your movie for DVD Studio or whatever.

That's what I do anyhow.

DDigital

wha wrote: »

the apple store website seems to be down or has a broken link or something, so I can't access the Ireland part. Just looking for advice from people here.
I want to get final cut pro and some sort of mac book because I'll be doing editing for a few different projects I'm working on, and would love to even get some work as a freelance editor.

Can people advise me about what's the minimum it'll cost, which model I should go for that's best for running fcp, and if there's anywhere you can get macs for cheaper than the website?

I was going to buy one a few months ago but decided instead to just use sony vegas on my windows laptop.. and what a mistake that was! Really don't like vegas as much as I liked fcp in college.

I just want to hear some advice about macs and fcp from people who have some experience before I go spending money on one that might not be the best model for what I want to do.

If you are taking editing seriously, then go with an iMac and FC Studio. You can be up and running for approx. €2,200 or so. I opted for a better spec'd iMac so the cost came to around €3k. You can always add a mac book later it the need justifies it. But I think its always best to have your core edit station fixed. (sounds old fashion, I know:D, but thats the generation I hail from.)

Avid Media Composer was mentioned. I know it but have never used it full time. Cost put me off it. The software alone is around the same price as an iMac and FCS combined.

Sorry to hear you didn't like Vegas, I think its a cracking bit of software and very underrated to a similar degree that FCP is overrated.

DDigital

ciencin wrote: »

The whole "I'm a professional so I need to work on a macbook or FCP" is rubbish.

Interesting point and I generally agree. I think up and coming editors/filmmakers often overlook the pitch of what they are making and ignore cheaper software that can deliver excellent results. Ultimately its about the craft. An experienced editor will get outstanding results from the cheapest and most bog standard of software.

Apologies if this is slightly off topic.

JG009

DDigital wrote: »

Avid Media Composer was mentioned. I know it but have never used it full time. Cost put me off it. The software alone is around the same price as an iMac and FCS combined.

Sorry to hear you didn't like Vegas, I think its a cracking bit of software and very underrated to a similar degree that FCP is overrated.

Media composer I found incredibly awkward, in comparison to the ease of protools (also from avid). Nail hit on the head there with vegas being underrated, it is an amazing piece of software.

This is sort of like the audio game where many people feel they need "Protools"
because it is the "industry standard" well ableton, logic, garage band etc are quite up there with it and they dont need hardware. Well the new protools doesnt need hardware - maybe thats a sign it knows it has competition to fear and needs to change its ways. Going off topic but you can see what we mean about FCP.