Buying A New Imac for FCP use…Which model??

[Phillip Todd]

Hi

I have been thinking also of buying an iMac for FCP in the last days.
Yesterday I found one used at a decent price on ebay and thought about taking the plunge until I saw this:
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iMac

The iMac is overdue for an update.

Personally, I am looking for one that can have the OWC esata upgrade done
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/iMac

is compatible with Resolve for future color correction
and has as much VRAM, display real estate and processing power as I can afford.

Let us know what you end up doing.

Thanks,

Phillip Todd
Cinematographer
Philadelphia – NYC – Zurich

https://vimeo.com/philliptodd

[Mark Suszko]

It’s usually smart to wait for NAB in April to see if something new is coming out, but Apple is kind of fickle now about if it attends NAB or not. I don’t keep up with the mac convention and developer conference schedules, but I’d pay attention to what is (and isn’t) said at the next big one of those, first.

Looking at the billions of iphones and ipads sold, I don’t think of Apple a a computer company anymore; more like it’s a phone company, that happens to make stuff we like to use for video. And I’m not saying that to be snarky: I’m saving up for one of their biggest imacs, all maxed-out, myself, but I’m waiting until April, just in case some price drop or new feature gets announced.

[Chris Tompkins]

You would do well to wait…

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Mark Suszko]

OTOH, the Xeno’s Paradox version of this problem is, if you never pull the trigger on a purchase decision, you’ll never have to complain about rapid obsolescence, BUT, you’ll also never DO anything.

Somewhere in-between is the sweet spot, where you stop worrying about what you might be missing in some future update, versus being productive and enjoying the unit today and for some time to come. My current imac is over 13 years old, and pretty feeble in 2012 terms, so I will wait thru April, but unless there is a TON of evidence that something new is really worth the wait, I’m just going to go ahead and commit.

The bigger annoyance will be seeing the price drop on the model I ended up getting, a week after it’s arrived. If Apple had a heart, they’d have a rebate policy for that sort of thing, and perhaps they do, but I don’t really expect it.

[Jerry Hofmann]

Apple troops will be all over NAB. Just no booth.

Can’t say never again, but it’s been about 4 years since Apple appeared in a booth in any tradeshow anywhere, so it’s likely that will continue. They don’t have to be at Macworld nor at NAB because their products are displayed all over the show as it is.

Why spend the money to do NAB if you’re already there anyway, and you make meetings with folks you need to talk to, and the rest, well, they can eye your stuff everywhere on the show floor…

Jerry

[Jerry Hofmann]

Buy the fastest Mac your money can buy if you’re running media software always. Don’t be afraid to look at Apple’s refurbs. Great deals, and perfect machines fully warrantied.

Jerry