Opinion's on moving to Mac for video editing please?

Hi 3do, never spotted your post. The Sony cameras I have owned in the past (non-HD) have all had pretty good image quality and very straight forward. The Canon digital I currently use (but is out of date now) is still very, very good, but needs replacing. It's retiring to the great eBay in the sky!

 

Well, I have moved over to an iMac equipped with 4Gb ram, 2.4GHz Intel dual core & Leopard OSX. Now for the camera.

 

Congrats! Let me know if you have any issues

 

Cheers Borman, but I'll be brutally honest and say that now I've installed Microsoft Office & MSN Messenger, it really just feels incredibly straight forward. The only thing I have missed thus far is the left / right mouse buttons and I'm not keen on that tiny little scrolling nipple on the mouse. But the keyboard is very comfortable however.

I elected for 'Final Cut 4' to start off with. The external HDD is currently the scratch pad for it, which I assume is the best option. I have 2 external drives. A USB 300Gb and a firewire400 500Gb. More than enough I would imagine. Eventually I'll get two firewire drives and piggy back them.

 

niiiiice. that's a sweet setup. i'd love to have that stuff one of these days.

 

Well, I'll tell you the best thing Apple could have done was open up their highstreet stores. The staff are amazing, take their time over every question and know their stuff. When I went in to talk to them about editing video I was pointed in the direction of an older guy who'd 4 years experience with the software, was in the middle of taking the internal examinations (which is good to know as many of these companies start off with good intentions, but offer no real training) and he had production experience on Mac. Turns out that when he passes he'll be taking "One-to-one" sessions on using 'Final Cut' and other video packages, which considering it's about £1.47 per lesson (1 hr) I am very tempted to go along to.

The mere fact that these guys could demonstrate and explain this material to me at length (I was there for almost an hour and the member of staff didn't flinch) impressed me.

Fast forward to 'PC World' and I went into to ask about the PC alternatives to Mac and video editing. The staff were kind of thin on the ground, when I collared one he didn't have a clue, he passed me onto someone else (who it turns out was a University graduate with production experience) who was knowledgeable, but didn't rate any of the products he was selling. I heard 'don't bother with that', 'I don't rate this', 'The PC isn't as good as you'd think'. I think we'd have eventually found something to suit me, however after 15 mins of talking he just said 'I hope that helps, I'll leave you with (the original) sales guy' who at that moment looked like he was a rabbit about to be shot.

In the end they were pointing at the Mac as well, but when they went to check their stock they 'Only had the display model left' and someone had stolen their last copy of Final Cut 4. Ho hum!

I'm not going to jump on the Mac are so much better than PC bandwagon, but because Apple are in control of all the components it is very compact, everything is built in, works and most importantly to the wife it looks stunning.

I'm keeping an old WinXP PC for dev stuff, but the Vista PC is going to be sold.

 

Yeah, they're definitely sexy machines. Everyone that has come over has looked at it and asked, "Where's the tower?"

I've gone to the Apple store a few times and they're always very helpful. I wonder how much they make...

 

The only thing I hate about the apple stores (probably exacerbated (sp?) in london) are all the bloody tourists checking their emails. Cheap gits won't go to an internet cafe.
Glad you got what you were looking for parris, I have no experience in final cut, but I know my way around macs if you need any help.

 

Use Adium, best chat client on any platform, it should support MSN. The mouse has a right click, just push on the right side instead of the left Or use any standard PC mouse

 

yeah, the mouse is one button on the outside, two on the inside. just click on the right or left side of the little ball and it's two different functions. :nod:

 

Get an intel based Mac - you can still run windows on it anyway , so you can have the best of both worlds.

 

too bad you cant click both sides at the same time. The reason? It's not really two buttons

 

Really? It might be my CTS then.... damn it, not got much power in the fingers required to operate the buttons and my old MS mouse was probably ideal in that I've used it for years and worn it in. Must admit I actually prefer a separate button, but this being Apple I'll assume I can adjust the sensor in the mouse? Will try that out tonight after work.

 

It's an Intel dual core, so I could always partition the HDD to use WinXP I guess.

 

As I said, the mighty mouse only has one button which senses left or right, but can't do left AND right at the same time, no adjustments unfortunately.

A pitty too, because I wanted to purchase one for my PC but found this to be a major drawback.

 

Parris you can hardly compare Pcworld with Apple store. I mean pc world is a box shifter and the staff get next to no training. They also dont pay anything like anyone who knows their stuff would want so thats why they are crap.

Ive not moved to OSX but i have a macbook pro and while ive got used to OSx over the last few weeks i still miss some windows features and games!

Also the_steadster thats what the apple store is! Its a webcafe... lol I use it all the time to search for stuff when im out in the west end. I think they like it that way as it keeps the store busy.

 

you can also click the sides, too! it's a crazy little mouse...

 

No, but they are both considered the main High Street stores by the general public that you'd approach to purchase a computer. PC World have always attempted to give the impression that their staff have expert advice to impart, plus professional services in-store such as PC & laptop repairs. The main problem locally is that if you ever go into PC World and stand under the PC & Laptop repair sign, you'll be disappointed to learn that they don't actually repair laptops, despite the sign above their very heads!

Having had no previous experience of the Apple store, I was actually pointing out the major differences in ethos, training, service and attitude rather than product.

Of course Apple are shifting their own product, whereas PC World are selling a plethora of products and you'll have less training opportunities or even no interest in particular products.

This is the reason that I mentioned that Apple were very wise to have put so much time, money & effort into their high street stores and it is clearly paying off. PC World pointed me towards the same product that was finally purchased in the Apple store, but the level of service couldn't have been further apart rather than me saying they were at all similar.

I am curious to know how much the Apple staff are paid actually.

 

If you don't like the Mighty Mouse, use your standard USB one.

I too really liked the experience of the Apple store (I went to the one in Bluewater, and it was great)

 

My current PC mouse is hindered by the fact that it's infra red and probably not compatible. Also it would mean attaching a really ugly lump of black plastic that was the 'discrete' Microsoft detector, which is not an option. I'll just have to practice with this mouse and get used to it.

Just ordered the 4Gb memory upgrade from Crucial.com

The Apple store charges approximately £99 per Gb, whereas Crucial (whom also deliver free of charge in the UK) cost £64 in total. That saving was factored into the original purchase price, which is what paid for Final Cut 4, MS Office '04, a training manual for FC4 and an external 500Gb HDD.

It was actually a member of staff who pointed us in the direction of Crucial!