Rick Lang
Forum Replies Created
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Erik, did you also talk to them about the mobile/notebook cards such as the K5000M? There’s a series of notebook and mobile offerings and would be interesting to know what could fit in a new iMac.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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And with a release date of December 2012 for the BMCC MFT model, it looks like they fully expect their supply problems to be ironed out before then because they must know that a micro four-thirds mount (supporting PL-mount with an adapter) will be a popular option for many people who were deterred by the paucity of wide lens options for the original BMCC EF and lack of support for PL-mount.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Yes, apparently BMD is now on record saying that there are supply shortages for the sensor! The sensor is designed for scientific uses and it makes sense that the normal volumes for those uses we’re quite modest compared to the demand for the sensor in a BMCC. The ramp up in production if the sensors has not gone according to plan. Wow, you think you have the bases covered when you take on a project like delivering a new camera but Murphy us always lurking around the corner looking for an opportunity to apply his Law.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Lemur:
“The one concrete thing, according to the rep, is that production has slowed and this item will not be available to the public anytime soon.”Thanks for your comments. I’m not sure how closely you have followed the BlackMagic Cinema Camera but I read everything about it I can find and participate in BMCuser.com and the BMD forums. There certainly are lots of questions and sometimes things change of course both while it’s in development and now in limited distribution.
When the BMD rep mentioned automatic iris control, that was likely a reference to the Iris button on the camera back. When you press the Iris button, for those lenses that support iris control via the EF mount, the iris will change to provide an exposure just under that determined by your zebra setting (from 75% to 100% zebra).
Several ‘production’ cameras were distributed recently for testing by outside pros, meaning they have the same hardware and firmware as the cameras being shipped to real customers. The shipments to real customers commenced August 31, 2012 but as far as I know, BMD has not released any numbers or identified all the distributors who are receiving cameras. I’ll try to check when the next wave of shipments will occur. At least I have not heard about a cessation of production shipments. It may be that the general public may not see the camera anytime soon because they have a large back order to fill before anyone can walk into a store and buy one on the spot. Hope that’s what the rep meant. If I find something more definitive, then, as Arnold said, after General MacArthur, “I’ll be back.”
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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“This guy” is Marco Solorio who is generously performing a wonderful evaluation of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera now in limited distribution. Marco, and several other cinematographer/bloggers received a production version of the BMCC in August. The camera may not be perfect and lots of footage hit the cutting room floor, but the assembled short does illustrate some of the camera’s capabilities when in good hands.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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If you can afford to, maximize the memory to 16 GB, maximize the GPU if there’s an option for more GDDR5 memory, get the biggest internal SSD you can justify financially. Certainly the 512GB internal SSD is going to give your machine a longer useful life.
SSDs are not like hard disks in that they don’t require any defragging by you. The internal SSD controller in the drive itself takes care of this itself (helped by the TRIM feature). Even partitioning an SSD may be just for your logical convenience as it may make no physical difference to the SSD performance. Do not fill an SSD to it’s maximum capacity. The rule of thumb for any system drive is to allow 10% room and you want to perhaps even increase that for your SSD as it needs free space to manage your data behind the scene. If you ever have an external SSD, you still need to ensure it has some breathing room on any device that says its capacity is 128 or 256 or 512GB. If the SSD says it’s capacity is 120 or 240 or 480GB, the drive is setting aside about 6% of its real capacity for that internal data management so you could safely fill them closer to the stated capacity. Hope you follow what I mean.
Depending upon the size of your FCPX projects and how many you work on concurrently, you may be able to get away with using the internal SSD for both the operating system, your normal stuff, and your media. At least for a while and later you can buy an external drive for editing and archiving. Even though you have two Thunderbolt ports, be sure to buy only external desktop drives that have two Thunderbolt ports so they can be part of a daisy-chain of TB/DisplayPort devices. Shame on the vendors that don’t include a pass-through TB connection on their devices. Remember you also have two USB 3 drive ports so there is that option for archiving/backups as well as possibly for audio/visual editing.
Did I cover everything? I try to maximize the configuration because you can’t upgrade it yourself later. I don’t think you’ll sell the machine anytime soon so enjoy!
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Very good. I believe you can use either screen as a monitor within FCPX but it will be very nice to get the full 1920×1080 HD window running on the retina 2880×1800 screen. I don’t know if the HDMI port allows input of a signal from a other source or if is only enabled for HDMI output from the laptop. Call Apple to verify.
You can also run dual displays with the retina screen and your Samsung LED screen (as I do from my iMac). Nice to have extra screen real estate and an easy way to display HD images in their actual size. Good luck with your purchase and your video project.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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I use the HV20. You can edit it in iMovie in FCPX if there’s anything fancy you need to do. if you use iMovie, the footage will be converted to the Apple Intermediate Codec. In FCPX, you can edit directly in HDV but better to select Optimuze Media on ingest which will give you ProRes. Either will work for you. If money is an issue, just use iMovie as long as you needs aren’t too challenging but if you want to but FCPX, it’s not expensive at $299 on the Mac App Store.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Hire a professional in Kenya.
He/she will have a camera, perhaps even the same 5D.
Your documentary is too important to put the burden of supplying you with useable footage on an inexperienced friend who cannot be expected to know how to handle the dozens of things that are involved besides pressing the start button. If you want some anecdotal experience: I asked a friend to merely press the start button for me once and showed them the button and how to verify the camera was recording and you guessed it, they couldn’t do that single task and I lost something that can never be recaptured in that shoot. I’ll never know what they pressed but it wasn’t the start button! I’ll never do that again and would hate to have you go through an experience like that.
The professional will also solve your audio requirements that you specify. It may not cost more than buying your friend the necessary equipment, the delays due to shipping and customs, the delays due to theft, and the sinking feeling you get when you see and hear the results of your friend’s well-intentioned efforts.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Jake, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” One could be forgiven if one expected a new iMac in October 2012. But no guarantee. And wouldn’t that be too late to be useful for your project beginning in September?
Your plan re the rMBP may be better given the machine exists and others on the Creative Cow seem happy with it. One advantage of the rMBP is the GPU is from NVIDIA and includes CUDA support; that can improve performance for some graphics uses. There’s no guarantee even a refreshed iMac will support CUDA although it may. The alternative of moving to an existing iMac is there but in two months you may have buyer’s remorse if indeed the refreshed iMac is imminent. You know what is best for you.
The reimagined Mac Pro that Tim Cook mentioned would need to wait for 2013 is not a guarantee either in terms of what specs it will have or if it’s affordable for you. If it happens and you love it, great sell what you buy this year. But I’d recommend you buy something you’re going to be happy with just in case you eventually decide to keep it longer than you’re planning.
It may come down to the form factor of the rMBP versus the iMac since both are fairly closed boxes in terms of upgrade ability. I use a 27″ iMac and like having the larger screen size. But the 15″ rMBP has a higher resolution screen than the 27″ iMac. Of course that higher resolution may not be totally useable depending upon how you use it with FCPX. There is a sweet configuration for the rMBP that will give you a true 1929×1080 HD display of your video as you are editing it within FCPX so that is appealing.
Hope these thoughts help but your decision.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB