Video Editing - Macbook Pro / FCPX
Discussion
Looking at getting a new laptop which I will use primarily for video editing. My old I3 Acer just about runs After Effects but takes an age to render anything.
I'm thinking of a MacBook Pro as I quite fancy getting to grips with Final Cut Pro X. A big bonus is that FCPX is a one off licence fee of £230 wheras After Effects CC is £205 a year. The ongoing cost of After Effects therefore somewhat negates the initial apple tax for the macbook pro making it look very attractive.
I currently do a lot of custom masking with the videos I publish but am interested in an editor with colour correction capabilities as well as some nice plugins such as self animating line indicators:
http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/plugin/plugin-pr...
http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/plugin/plugin-pr...
Can currently pic up the following macbook pro for £899 with another 5.5% off through vouchers bringing it in at £850. Also as its John Lewis the extended guarantee for 3 years is nice:
http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-macbook-pro-with-re...
I appreciate that its not got decicated graphics and the SSD drive is small but am happy to connect an external drive for the bulk of my media storage leaving the SSD for stuff im working on. Would be nice to up spec but TBH thats my budget max. Also not too fussed that it might take a little longer to render as its not time critical - just needs to be able to run FCPX and not take overnight to render just a 5 min clip.
I appreciate a desktop would be all singing and better but I dont have the room with kids to have a desktop.
So........just wondering what peoples thoughts are on mac's and FCPX before taking the plunge or whether there are any alternatives im missing. I've used lightworks but found it didnt have basic masking tools - even the plugins were only 8 point masks.
Thanks
PO
I'm thinking of a MacBook Pro as I quite fancy getting to grips with Final Cut Pro X. A big bonus is that FCPX is a one off licence fee of £230 wheras After Effects CC is £205 a year. The ongoing cost of After Effects therefore somewhat negates the initial apple tax for the macbook pro making it look very attractive.
I currently do a lot of custom masking with the videos I publish but am interested in an editor with colour correction capabilities as well as some nice plugins such as self animating line indicators:
http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/plugin/plugin-pr...
http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/plugin/plugin-pr...
Can currently pic up the following macbook pro for £899 with another 5.5% off through vouchers bringing it in at £850. Also as its John Lewis the extended guarantee for 3 years is nice:
http://www.johnlewis.com/apple-macbook-pro-with-re...
I appreciate that its not got decicated graphics and the SSD drive is small but am happy to connect an external drive for the bulk of my media storage leaving the SSD for stuff im working on. Would be nice to up spec but TBH thats my budget max. Also not too fussed that it might take a little longer to render as its not time critical - just needs to be able to run FCPX and not take overnight to render just a 5 min clip.
I appreciate a desktop would be all singing and better but I dont have the room with kids to have a desktop.
So........just wondering what peoples thoughts are on mac's and FCPX before taking the plunge or whether there are any alternatives im missing. I've used lightworks but found it didnt have basic masking tools - even the plugins were only 8 point masks.
Thanks
PO
Edited by Pot Odds on Sunday 20th December 13:19
Pot Odds said:
So........just wondering what peoples thoughts are on mac's and FCPX
We use MacPros with Premiere Pro all the time and are very stable, so I can't see why they wouldn't work with FCPX.However our machines are all i7's with 16BG Ram and Intel Iris Pro Graphics, they take about one minute to render one minute of footage on average.
A MacBook Pro will suffice for the occasional video editing without much drama, but what you do need is a huge monitor (or two) and masses of RAM if you're opening up a huge numbers of layers.
In terms of physical size why not invest in a decent spec Mac Pro http://www.apple.com/uk/mac-pro/ and place it under the table, and a monster sized monitor on the table, so will probably take up less room than a MacBook Pro, with the added advantage that if you do inevitably spill a cup of coffee over the keyboard it will only result in the keyboard needing to be washed and dried on the radiator, rather than the MacBook Pro being replaced at huge expense!
As regards to the software, Final Cut Pro X is the business and is fully capable of carrying out heavy duty video editing tasks. Apple used to offer one 2 one tuition for a nominal fee on the use of their hardware and software products, though not so sure whether this is still available. Perhaps call in to your local Apple store and ask them for advice. The Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield has a fantastic Apple Store located on the upper floor with plenty of talented staff.
In terms of physical size why not invest in a decent spec Mac Pro http://www.apple.com/uk/mac-pro/ and place it under the table, and a monster sized monitor on the table, so will probably take up less room than a MacBook Pro, with the added advantage that if you do inevitably spill a cup of coffee over the keyboard it will only result in the keyboard needing to be washed and dried on the radiator, rather than the MacBook Pro being replaced at huge expense!
As regards to the software, Final Cut Pro X is the business and is fully capable of carrying out heavy duty video editing tasks. Apple used to offer one 2 one tuition for a nominal fee on the use of their hardware and software products, though not so sure whether this is still available. Perhaps call in to your local Apple store and ask them for advice. The Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield has a fantastic Apple Store located on the upper floor with plenty of talented staff.
As a user of FCPX on a MacBook Pro (albeit one more powerful than linked), it works fine.
You'll struggle for space, my advice would be get a decent USB3/Thunderbolt drive to work on.
Also, FCPX is user friendly to a point, but I just don't think it's as good as Premiere Pro, which seems a lot more powerful.
You'll struggle for space, my advice would be get a decent USB3/Thunderbolt drive to work on.
Also, FCPX is user friendly to a point, but I just don't think it's as good as Premiere Pro, which seems a lot more powerful.
Thanks for the feedback all.
Would love to stretch to MacPro but thats a 3x creep on my max budget without even thinking about lovely big screens ! Table is already a family dining, homework and just about everything else location - screen would therefore be just as likely to get broken by flying toys as the macbook pro is to get drinks spilt on it!
It's hobby editing I so won't be looking to edit the next hollywood blockbuster but wanted something a little more capable than the usual free editors.
Thanks again
PO
Would love to stretch to MacPro but thats a 3x creep on my max budget without even thinking about lovely big screens ! Table is already a family dining, homework and just about everything else location - screen would therefore be just as likely to get broken by flying toys as the macbook pro is to get drinks spilt on it!
It's hobby editing I so won't be looking to edit the next hollywood blockbuster but wanted something a little more capable than the usual free editors.
Thanks again
PO
Thanks - was aware imovie was rather a step up from the likes of windows moviemaker.
Quite sold on FCPX though as I'm guessing imovie wont have custom masking capability or the ability to install plugins for nice animated titles & infographics ?
As FCPX is a one off fee it seems a more sustainable option for what I need compared to adobes ongoing subscription model.
I'm also hoping to pay for FCPX using itunes vouchers in which case thats another saving as they can normally be picked up for 20% discount bringing it down to £184. Happy to hear about any other deals on FCPX.
Quite sold on FCPX though as I'm guessing imovie wont have custom masking capability or the ability to install plugins for nice animated titles & infographics ?
As FCPX is a one off fee it seems a more sustainable option for what I need compared to adobes ongoing subscription model.
I'm also hoping to pay for FCPX using itunes vouchers in which case thats another saving as they can normally be picked up for 20% discount bringing it down to £184. Happy to hear about any other deals on FCPX.
Edited by Pot Odds on Monday 21st December 20:56
Pot Odds said:
Thanks - was aware imovie was rather a step up from the likes of windows moviemaker.
Quite sold on FCPX though as I'm guessing imovie wont have custom masking capability or the ability to install plugins for nice animated titles & infographics ?
As FCPX is a one off fee it seems a more sustainable option for what I need compared to adobes ongoing subscription model.
I'm also hoping to pay for FCPX using itunes vouchers in which case thats another saving as they can normally be picked up for 20% discount bringing it down to £184. Happy to hear about any other deals on FCPX.
iMovie is vastly superior to Windows Movie Maker and does come with quite a few standard animated titles, perhaps pop into your local Apple store and have a play. Actually, if you have an iPhone it should already be installed on it.Quite sold on FCPX though as I'm guessing imovie wont have custom masking capability or the ability to install plugins for nice animated titles & infographics ?
As FCPX is a one off fee it seems a more sustainable option for what I need compared to adobes ongoing subscription model.
I'm also hoping to pay for FCPX using itunes vouchers in which case thats another saving as they can normally be picked up for 20% discount bringing it down to £184. Happy to hear about any other deals on FCPX.
Edited by Pot Odds on Monday 21st December 20:56
I'm not impressed with Adobe with their greedy pricing structure and now all this online yearly subscription stuff, if I'm paying good money I want the program and the video files on my computer rather than sat on some server in the ether!
The price of FCPX with the vouchers looks very enticing indeed and it really is a very accomplished product, just remember to buy some more RAM for your MacBook from the likes of crucial.com because video editing can be very memory intensive.
If you do go for a MacBook Pro then before you commit to FCPX perhaps try out iMovie 6 which is still available for free download from Apple, it's not as user friendly as the latest versions of iMovie but is regarded by many as being extremely competent. Link is: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL319?locale=en_US and please note that you can install more than one version of iMovie on your Mac so you could try out earlier versions as well as the latest versions to see which work best for you.
In terms of Mac versus PC value for money, well I'm still using my 2007 24" iMac with 4GB of RAM for video editing without any problems, though have connected up a few external hard drives to store the videos and photographs because the inbuilt 320GB HD just isn't big enough (use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the drives) and I haven't been brave enough to take it apart to fit a larger hard-drive.
Whatever you choose should prove to be great fun...
As a company we use both the MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro
Be under no illusions that even a full loaded (memory, SSE, quick graphics and processor) MacBook Pro will start to struggle and give u the multi colour pinwheel if you start apply complex plugins and effects on anything other than short films under 5 mins. You can minimise this by turning off background rendering etc but not to be regarding as anything more than a casual machine for this kind of processor intensive stuff. We use them for run and gun interviews where they need to be quickly edited, titled and minimal colour correction and out on a corporate internet same day.
Anything else we use leased Mac Pros. Great deals were to be had in October/November. Not sure they are going now. We had severa 8 core and 12 core with the top end dual graphics, 64gb ram and 1tb pci drive for between 86 and 100/month
Fab machines and really have the horsepower for complex plugins and finishers
Be under no illusions that even a full loaded (memory, SSE, quick graphics and processor) MacBook Pro will start to struggle and give u the multi colour pinwheel if you start apply complex plugins and effects on anything other than short films under 5 mins. You can minimise this by turning off background rendering etc but not to be regarding as anything more than a casual machine for this kind of processor intensive stuff. We use them for run and gun interviews where they need to be quickly edited, titled and minimal colour correction and out on a corporate internet same day.
Anything else we use leased Mac Pros. Great deals were to be had in October/November. Not sure they are going now. We had severa 8 core and 12 core with the top end dual graphics, 64gb ram and 1tb pci drive for between 86 and 100/month
Fab machines and really have the horsepower for complex plugins and finishers
Some more really helpful comments there - much appreciated.
In addition to hobby use I do the odd demo video and just wanted to have some improved editing with masking, titles and self animating graphics. Hopefully this won't be taxing the macbook too heavily and as there is no time pressure for rendering etc I felt the spec of the macbook pro I was looking at would be adequate.
I'd love to have a bigger SSD than 128GB but that would require another £225 (256GB) or £425 (512GB) up front now. Sadly the latest gen of macbook pros appear to have a very specific SSD which are apparently rather hard to come by and consequently expensive (so its not as readily user upgraded as the older macbooks). As the macbook will generally be reserved for my editing i'm hoping 128gb will be enough to enable me to work on edits (which are generally in the 3-8 min duration) and then once complete transfer all the files for storage onto an external HDD or SSD therefore keeping the mac's SSD relatively clag free. Its a bit of a workaround but fine by me given my home style use.
Thanks again for sharing the wisdom
In addition to hobby use I do the odd demo video and just wanted to have some improved editing with masking, titles and self animating graphics. Hopefully this won't be taxing the macbook too heavily and as there is no time pressure for rendering etc I felt the spec of the macbook pro I was looking at would be adequate.
I'd love to have a bigger SSD than 128GB but that would require another £225 (256GB) or £425 (512GB) up front now. Sadly the latest gen of macbook pros appear to have a very specific SSD which are apparently rather hard to come by and consequently expensive (so its not as readily user upgraded as the older macbooks). As the macbook will generally be reserved for my editing i'm hoping 128gb will be enough to enable me to work on edits (which are generally in the 3-8 min duration) and then once complete transfer all the files for storage onto an external HDD or SSD therefore keeping the mac's SSD relatively clag free. Its a bit of a workaround but fine by me given my home style use.
Thanks again for sharing the wisdom
Pulled the trigger on the Macbook Pro (Retina Screen, I5, 8GB, 128GB SSD) with John Lewis today - just got to await delivery next week.
Thanks for everyones input - i'll let you know how I get along once i've had it a while.
In the meantime if anyone spots it for less than £899 in the next 28 days in a bricks n clicks premises then let me know so I can chase JL for a price match refund.
Have a great X'mas all !
Thanks for everyones input - i'll let you know how I get along once i've had it a while.
In the meantime if anyone spots it for less than £899 in the next 28 days in a bricks n clicks premises then let me know so I can chase JL for a price match refund.
Have a great X'mas all !
We use FCPX exclusively in work. Once you learn how to use it, it's a very quick and powerful editing tool.
We've thrown some 4K footage at it on a Retina MacBook and it didn't struggle - not a huge difference to our 5K iMacs unless they are large multicam projects.
You definitely need an external drive though. Look at getting an external enclosure and one of the cheap SSD's which are popping up on hot uk deals all the time.
We've thrown some 4K footage at it on a Retina MacBook and it didn't struggle - not a huge difference to our 5K iMacs unless they are large multicam projects.
You definitely need an external drive though. Look at getting an external enclosure and one of the cheap SSD's which are popping up on hot uk deals all the time.
Message Board | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff