[Jeff Carpenter]

Right, good point. It will probably be November or December before you could get one. I should have mentioned that, but I thought you should look at it since I usually spend 2 or 3 months thinking about it before I buy a new camera.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I THINK what you want to do, is to first change the location of the library somewhere in iTune’s prefrences.

I don’t think anything will move at that point…only new songs will go there. So what you want to do is to go to the “Advanced” menu and select “Consolidate Library.” I think that will then copy all of your music into the new library. The old one might remain, you have to go erase it yourself using Finder.

I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, but I’m not 100% sure. You may want to read through the program’s help file to see if you find anything like that in there before you try it.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I have a question…

You say this would be a “2nd camera” so does that mean you’d be shooting weddings with this new camera and the 2100 at the same time?

If that’s the case, how are you going to use the 24p footage? I mean, I assume you’ll shoot in the non-advanced mode so that your video is actually 29.97 with the 24 fps “look” so that it will mix with the other camera’s footage, but how are you planning to mix that (widescreen and 24p) “look” with the different looking video of the 2100?

I’m just curious about what your plan will be for that. Regardless, my advice for what you want would probably be a Panasonic DVX-100A with an anamorphic lens on it OR the Panasonic AG-HVX200. (Even though that one’s able to record HD on memory chips you could simply use it as a DV-only camera for now and worry about that stuff later. I’m ASSUMING it can do 24p to tape, but I’m not positive. Best to check out the P2 forum for info on that.)

Have you used a camera like that with 24p ability? I have not myself, but I understand that it takes a bit more effort in terms of lighting and camera-movement-steadiness. For those reasons I’ve never thought much about using one for event-video, but I’m sure some people do.

Is there anyone here who has used the 100A for event-shooting? I know the ways it’s different, but I’d love to hear about those differences as it relates to ENG shooting.

[Jeff Carpenter]

For still images…

720p is 1,280×720, so all you’ve got to do is meet that. It might be better to have an image larger than that so you can srhink it and have some room for adjustments, but that would be the minimum. I just looked up the chepest, 3 megapixel digital camera I could find. At “medium” settings it takes images at 2080 x 1368 so even that would be more than you need. And that’s from a $95 camera.

To get good still images the most important thing will be the lens. Get the best one you can with all manual controls. But don’t worry about chip size. Anything over 3 megapixels will be fine for TV. Even at HD resolutions, video is nowhere near still cameras in terms of pixel resolution.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I think I’ve heard of people running Final Cut and Avid on the same system…search the archives here, I’m pretty sure I’ve read about it here in the past.

Also, I’d suggest getting a 2nd internal SATA drive. Like, 250 or 300 GB. I use my primary drive for Applications, iTunes, and iPhoto storage (they default to the system drive), my external drive for captured video, and my second internal drive for everything else. From graphics, to spreadsheets, to my web page, to DVD projects and finished DVD images. I find I often want to keep thigns (like DVD projets) for quite a while after I’m done with them, so I let the drive get up to about 90% full before I start erasing old stuff. I’m afraid that if I let my system drive get that full then my applications would start to get sluggish, so I keep the second drive for files. I just feel better when my system drive is more than 50% empty. That’s just my opinion, but I thought I’d suggest it.

As for starting “fresh,” start out by printing this document:

https://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Installing_Your_Final_Cut_Pro_Software.pdf

Hold on to that for now, I’ll get back to it later.

Once you’re ready to erase, put your OS X CD or DVD into the machine and restart holding the “C” key. Once the CD loads, find the Disc Utility in the pull down menus and erase your drive using the “Zero all Data” option and make it an “Extended” format. You can leave Journaling off or on. I think some say off, but I don’t think I’ve heard of a problem with it on the system drive. (Do turn it off for any media drives when you format them, however.) Then install OS X.

After you reformat and re-install OS X the FIRST thing you should do is to get it online. Run the software update and re-start. Run it again until it tells you there is nothing left.

Then get that PDF I gave you earlier and follow whatever it says.

After that, run software update again, and then to to Applications/Utlities/Disc Utility and repair the permissions on your system drive.

Then install any other software you have, run software update one more time, and restart with the OS X CD and hold “C.” Once that comes up, open disc utility and repair permissions one last time. Then restart without running the installation program and you’re good to go!

[Jeff Carpenter]

Dunno, but I’ve done a little playing around with my dual 2.0 Powermac (with 256 MB of VRAM) and I’d call it “just enough” for serious working. I’m sure the iMac could get the job done, but I’m not sure how much fun it would be. You’d probably have minimal real-time performance for things like color correcting and exporting and conversions might be overnight affairs.

How long would your projects be? How much would you use HDV? Would it be a hobby or a business?

I’d say that the iMac COULD work for you, but you’d have to decide how critical this all is and how much waiting time you can spare. I can’t really be more helpful as I don’t have an iMac. Maybe someone else here does and can give you actual experiences with that.

[Jeff Carpenter]

All I can offer is my own experience which is http://www.crucial.com

The RAM I’ve bought from them works perfectly alongside the RAM that came with my G5. They sometimes sell different-priced RAM but the cheapest ones they offer works fine for me.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with what you’ve listed, but I can only talk about my own experiences. Perhaps someone else can tell you about those brands.

[Jeff Carpenter]

OS X 10.4 is Tiger and it costs $129 at the Apple store.

OS X 10.3 was called Panther and it USED to cost $129 but now you can probably buy it for less than $30 on E-Bay.

You have OS X 10.2, that one’s Jaguar. Whenever the number after 10. changes, you have to pay for that and get it in a box.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I’ve had no problems at all opening 4.5 projects into 5.0

Just remember that you can’t go BACK once you’ve done that. It might be a good idea to make a duplicate copy of anything you’re going to open in 5 so that you have an un-changed legacy file.

But that’s just for safety. I’ve had no problems with old projects on FCP 5.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Does it boot up from the CD at all? I don’t remember what 10.2 did, but is there any way to access the Disc Utility from the CD? You might have to dig through the menus, I know that it’s in a very clear spot on Tiger but that it used to be hidden deeper.

If you can find that, erase the drive from there and then you shouldn’t have any problems re-loading the OS.