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About to buy my first Mac… question about Final Cut Express
I’m looking at a new 20″ iMac 2.4 GHz. I understand they just made some upgrades, but I don’t know what they are, but I’m looking at the unit that sells for $1199.00.
I keep having to pass on jobs because I only have a PC running Avid. And that’s just wrong, but that’s the way it is.
The question is… if I edit a project in Final Cut Express, could that project later be opened in Final Cut Pro?
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4 Replies
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You can go to FCP…. but not back
and only if it is DV or HDV
If you can afford avid… dont go with FCE… lack of batch capture will drive you nuts
Richard M. Harrington, PMP
Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork
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Thanks Richard. That’s a good point about batch capture. I saved up for a while to get my Avid, so I can do the same for Final Cut. It just hurts so much to wait
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If you’re prepared to wait, don’t get the iMac – you will be disappointed if you want to capture any broadcast formats. Get a refurb Mac Pro and an AJA or BlackMagic card. With an internal array (cheap to run and maintain) you can do almost anything.
Ben
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I guess it depends on what level of production you’re doing. For a while, I did some projects in FCE for another guy locally — I’d capture miniDV tapes and do a rough edit for him, then he’d take the media and FCE project files and finish it in FCP. Worked fine.
Now, you can’t work with uncompressed, you can’t work with FCP projects, and you don’t have the 3-way color corrector or scopes, but if you don’t need that now, FCE is an economical way to get started and learn the Final Cut interface. There’s not much different about the interface between Express & Pro — just more features & functions, but editing is exactly the same.
I agree with Ben — get a used/refurb G5 or a Mac Pro, even if you start with FCE for now. You can economically upgrade to a Kona or whatever, add an eSATA RAID, etc, when you have the money and need the functionality.
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