Another FCS and iMAC thread.

[Mark Petereit]

Here’s another option that might get you the best of all worlds: find a tech-savvy local church that’s ready to get their feet wet in video and volunteer your time. Let them provide the Mac Pro and all the toys and you provide the creativity, talent and time.

Don’t laugh. It’s working out GREAT for me and for my church!

[Tim Russell]

Haha my dad’s a vicar so I might just be able to swing it!

[Martin Curtis]

Everything these guys say is true.

At work, I have a 2.8 GHz C2D 27″ iMac with 4 GB RAM, 750 GB HD, 256 MB video card, 1 TB external HDD (USB2.0, Time Machine drive), Sony DSR11 deck, Sony PD150 and HVR-V1 cameras and a Panasonic 14″ broadcast monitor hooked up via the DSR11.

I run FCS2 – mainly FCP and LiveType and teaching myself Motion.

The system runs just fine – no dropped frames and FCP doesn’t seem to need to render too often. In fact, it’s a perfect little workhorse. However … everything I do is standard def in DV format with no more than 5 video tracks in FCP, it is all for distribution on DVD or mangled into WMV for intranet; nothing is ever intended for broadcast. I work for a public hospital and getting it out looking OK and doing it inexpensively is more important than perfectly polished. I can see/hear the flaws, but I work within the limitations imposed by the iMac and the (time and money) budget. Having said that, I recently completed shooting and editing a 30 minute education video (my first of that length) that looks pretty damn good. IMHO.

If my manager ever hints at high def, I’ll hit them up for a Mac Pro with as many trimmings as I can get. Just like these guys said.

While I think you could spec out an iMac to be a reasonable system (quad core i7, 512 MB video card, external FW800 drive, second monitor) equivalent in power to a lowend Mac Pro, a professional would be pushing its limitations from day 1.

If you’re young enough to be doing an unpaid internship for a while, do it. Let someone else buy you a system to learn on. You’ll pick up heaps of knowledge and you’ll learn to be fast. Buy the iMac for home to experiment with and consolidate what you learn during the day.

HTH.