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Old October 23rd, 2007, 01:14 PM   #1
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Made the move to MAC

Well my business made the move to a Mac Pro with Adobe Production Suite, and FCS2 today.

I purchasesd from Zotz Digital a DVinfo.net sponsor. Brian has been a pleasure to work with setting up the proper machine.

Purchased DVD tutorials on FCS2, After Effects, Mac OS X, and Photoshop. That should keep me busy during then next week in my free time. Ha, free time while running a business.

I am excited and look forward to any input on sites, forums, and instruction.
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Old October 23rd, 2007, 05:21 PM   #2
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Welcome to the world of the Mac.. I made the switch about 2 years ago.. and have not looked back since... Yes I still run an occasional piece of software on a PC..(and there is boot camp and parralells) but I have really enjoy being on the Mac and am quite happy with the switch..

Mike M.
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Old October 23rd, 2007, 06:15 PM   #3
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Congratulations Paul (and Mike). You're part of a growing number of new Mac users; Apple is now the #3 computer maker in the US, with 8% of the market.* While that might seem modest, when you realize Apple's share was less than 3% just a few years ago, I find it quite remarkable.

Now if *I* could only justify the cost to replace my G5 and G4 systems with Intel Macs....
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*(edit) I've also seen a figure of 6.3% US market share listed elsewhere, so YMMV...
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Old October 23rd, 2007, 07:25 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Cronin View Post
Well my business made the move to a Mac Pro with Adobe Production Suite, and FCS2 today.

I purchasesd from Zotz Digital a DVinfo.net sponsor. Brian has been a pleasure to work with setting up the proper machine.

Purchased DVD tutorials on FCS2, After Effects, Mac OS X, and Photoshop. That should keep me busy during then next week in my free time. Ha, free time while running a business.

I am excited and look forward to any input on sites, forums, and instruction.
Hey Paul congratulations, I just bought a system from ZotZ Digital to the one below and your right Brian was great to work with and he gave me a great deal to. I would recommend him to anyone who wants good service at a great price.


Final spec > Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
> 8GB (4 x 2GB) Ram added by them!
> 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
> 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s Barracuda ES added by them!
> ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
> One 16x SuperDrive
> Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
> Mac OS X - U.S. English
> AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) -
Auto-enroll
> Data Video converter for $200 for Mac Pro purchase
>Final Cut Pro Studio 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Old October 23rd, 2007, 10:57 PM   #5
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Welcome to the Mac zone. I've also found Zotz to be fabulous, straight shooters, too. I also like the idea they are on the West Coast and are easy for me to call and talk to. (I have nothing against the good East Coast vendors. I just live my life 4 hours later than they do living in Alaska.)

If you just made your purchase, I believe you should be getting the new OS X 10.5, which will be released this weekend. If it isn't pre-installed on your computer, make sure you get a disk with OS 10.5 from Apple for free. Hopefully, you will get 10.4 on the machine and 10.5 on disk. This way, it will be very stable out of the box and you won't have to deal with any possible bugs with the new OS 10.5. However, I am looking forward to upgrading to 10.5 after I get a few projects out the door and off this computer.

There are a number of great Mac web sites out there. Let us know if you ever need us to point you in the right direction
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Old October 24th, 2007, 06:56 AM   #6
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Thanks all for the kind words.

Doug good point I will check with Brian on the OS to make sure I get 10.4 installed and 10.5 on disk and wait for it to be stable.

More soon.
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Old October 24th, 2007, 07:58 AM   #7
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I made the switch last year and have never looked back. Took a day or so to get use to a new OS but the simplicity completely won me over. It has never failed on me yet and is still a joy to behold (like all the subtle quirks and programs). I can basically get down to work on the machine the way I intended to rather than having to search and download x amount of drivers ad infinitum...

For me, the FCP suite works seamlessly and is very intuitive (I also use Logic Pro which is outstanding).
Good move in this game Paul - and enjoy it!
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Old October 24th, 2007, 08:15 AM   #8
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Thanks David,

With just a few hours on the Mac OS and in After Effects wow is this nice. This means better productivity, quicker turn around for the client, higher end production, and more dollars for my compnay. Seems like we all win.
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Old October 26th, 2007, 02:16 PM   #9
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Hi guys,

I’m serious looking in my option of moving from PC to Mac. I’ve been in contact with Mac and asked a bunch of questions… but I have not got my main question answered, maybe you guys can help me out.

First I think that you need some background info to help me out; I run a small business (just me alone) and my main productions are educational videos about nature. Not any fancy graphics or stuff like that, just simple editing, but I use a lot of colour correction (most of me videos are filmed under water). So that’s about my background, here is my question:

Do you thing that an iMac with FCE and iDVD will be enough for my type of productions or will it be necessary to go “the whole way” to FCS with Color and DVD pro? And if I need to step up to FCS, will it work fine on iMac (24” 2.8GHz, 4GB ram, 750GB HD) or will it work better on Macbook Pro (2.4GHz, 4GB ram, 160GB/7200 HD)?

I run a small business, so I got a tight budget, but I want to move back to Mac… please help me out with your knowledge.

Markus Nord
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Old October 26th, 2007, 02:23 PM   #10
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Hi Markus,

I'm on PC now too, and also looking into the upgrade to mac (just have to find the funds first;-)) so I've done some searching here and there...

I don't know Final cut Express, but if you only do basic cutting, I do think it should be enough. If you want to go larger later, you can upgrade to the complete studio version later, right?
as for iDVD, I don't know... haven't worked with it either, but it sounds like a very consumer-ish program, but I don't know how complicated and far you can go into menu's and stuff, and in how far that you need them, maybe you don't.

I think both (FCS and FCE) will run perfectly on a iMac... And on a Macbook Pro. They are pretty similar in specs, those two computers, so I expect the programs to run quite similar too... Maybe that an iMac is a better choice though, if you don't really need the mobility factor of a Macbook Pro...
It's cheaper, same specs, and you don't have problems with a smaller screen, heat issues (even if they are fine on a Macbook Pro, they should be even more fine on an iMac)...

Good luck!
I personally can't wait to upgrade to mac.
Today wasted an hour of my life with an antivirus program (Norton) that made my computer go very slowly, then shut it down, computer flipped... Hope to get those issues over with, with a mac... I'm tired losing precious time because of a PC...
Not trying to ignite a flame war here, I know it's best to get your work pc's not connected for personal stuff, just telling about my experience...
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Old October 26th, 2007, 06:07 PM   #11
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Markus

If you're capturing mainly MiniDV or HDV I think you'll find that FCE and the newest iDVD in iLife 08 are very nice for basic to midlevel videos.

I'm also thinking of an iMac for video editing but I'm going to get a Macbook for portablility next. Leopard is going to form a solid OS base for Apple as well. Reports are already out and stability looks good.

Don't forget you have Bootcamp for running windows natively and Parallels and Vmware Fusion for virtualization. You do not have to break with PC legacy apps or file formats totally.
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Old October 26th, 2007, 06:35 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Markus Nord View Post
Hi guys,

I’m serious looking in my option of moving from PC to Mac. I’ve been in contact with Mac and asked a bunch of questions… but I have not got my main question answered, maybe you guys can help me out.

First I think that you need some background info to help me out; I run a small business (just me alone) and my main productions are educational videos about nature. Not any fancy graphics or stuff like that, just simple editing, but I use a lot of colour correction (most of me videos are filmed under water). So that’s about my background, here is my question:

Do you thing that an iMac with FCE and iDVD will be enough for my type of productions or will it be necessary to go “the whole way” to FCS with Color and DVD pro? And if I need to step up to FCS, will it work fine on iMac (24” 2.8GHz, 4GB ram, 750GB HD) or will it work better on Macbook Pro (2.4GHz, 4GB ram, 160GB/7200 HD)?

I run a small business, so I got a tight budget, but I want to move back to Mac… please help me out with your knowledge.

Markus Nord
If you do a lot of color correction get FCP you'll likely want the 3 way color correction which is not available in FCE. An iMac is more than enough.
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Old October 27th, 2007, 01:23 AM   #13
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Thanks guys…

I do shoot al of my productions on miniDV (XL2) so I guess that FCE will do the editing for me, but my main concern is will the colour correction be enough in FCE or will I need the FCS? I have looked around but not got any answer if you can get Color separate? I guess you can’t. But that would have done it for me. Today I use PPro and colour correction are ok, but I’m not 100% pleased will the result (Maybe it is just me that don’t know enough how to run the program). Is it anyone out there that today uses FCE and do colour correction and hopefully shoot UW video?

How advanced are the CC in FCE? As Elias Neris wrote, the 3 way correction sounds nice, but the cost is 4 times bigger. And Mathieu Ghekiere wrote that you can upgrade to FCS later, without paying full FCS price? I have not found any info on apple.com about that.

Thanks
/Markus Nord
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Old October 27th, 2007, 02:41 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by Markus Nord View Post
And Mathieu Ghekiere wrote that you can upgrade to FCS later, without paying full FCS price? I have not found any info on apple.com about that.
Sorry Markus, I didn't meant that. I think you misunderstood, I just meant, if you buy Final Cut Elements now, which I suppose doesn't have a large pricetag, and you don't like it, you can still upgrade (buy) FCS 2 later.
Maybe sell FC Elements here on the board afterwards...
Sorry for the confusion. You can only upgrade to FCS2 if you have an earlier version of final Cut Studio or Final Cut PRO.

I don't think you can buy Color standalone (you could before, but then it had a pricetag of 5000-25.000 dollars, yikes!), but there should be other stand alone color correcting software on the market, but I don't know how expensive they are.

There is also Magic Bullet Editors plugin, that I'm very pleased of in Premiere Pro, works also in final Cut Pro, but I don't know if it works in Final Cut Elements either...
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Old October 27th, 2007, 08:00 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Mathieu Ghekiere View Post
Sorry Markus, I didn't meant that. I think you misunderstood, I just meant, if you buy Final Cut Elements now, which I suppose doesn't have a large pricetag, and you don't like it, you can still upgrade (buy) FCS 2 later.
Maybe sell FC Elements here on the board afterwards...
Sorry for the confusion. You can only upgrade to FCS2 if you have an earlier version of final Cut Studio or Final Cut PRO.
OK, no problem. Maybe I start of with FCE and se if it works for me. I guess that the only way to know if it works is to try, just hope that I can sell it if it doesn’t work out...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathieu Ghekiere View Post
There is also Magic Bullet Editors plugin, that I'm very pleased of in Premiere Pro, works also in final Cut Pro, but I don't know if it works in Final Cut Elements either...
I have just checked Magic Bullet on the website, not in real life… Any one here that run Magic Bullet plug in together with FCE?

Markus Nord

edit:
I have mailed RedGiant software and asked theme about Magic Bullet Colorista and if it works with FCE. I'll get back to you all with there answer.

Last edited by Markus Nord; October 27th, 2007 at 01:11 PM.
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