FCP 5 & Mac O/S v. Premiere & Windows

jlames

jlames

Well-known member
I know I'll be opening myself up to the, "What a stupid question!" shots that will inevitably come with this post but I'd really like your individual, serious responses to this because I'm no expert and most of you are judging by the threads I have read over the past few days here. So if you need to take the easy shot, go ahead but I'm hoping that those of you knowlegable in both systems can help me be at least a little bit more at ease with dishing out alot of money.

So, with that said, I'm about to sink about $10k into a new editing system and, given the fact that I have always worked in the Windows environment through Adobe Photoshop, PageMaker, Illustrator and others and so am very comfortable in it and have moderate experience without anything too fancy in Premiere but no experience with Premiere Pro, does anyone feel that FCP 5 is significantly better than Premiere Pro to justify making the investment in the Mac O/S learning curve and ordering a Mac/FCP 5 system instead of the XP/Premiere Pro system? As I said in a previous post, I'm in the middle of a project right now and instead of using my old system with Premiere on it, I have a Windows-based system on order that I can change if need be. $10k is alot of money and I need to look to the future of more work I'll be doing.

I'm going to be making documentaries and short independent films because I really enjoy the medium and it's beginning to become more than just a hobby.

To those that can help, thanks for any serious answers and opinions you might be able to provide.
Jonathan
 
I am far from an Expert.. I started in high school using premiere on PC and once i got to film school i was introduced to mac.. i have never looked back, i caught on so quickly and fell in love with the OS and the quick keys. on a site like this, this is a loaded question and everyone has their opinions, so this is just mine..

I find premiere to be a bit on the primitive side, the interface just seems to me to be a bit crummy looking (for the lack of a better phrase) I use FCP and its pretty easy to learn and get used to, and like i said, the quick keys are incredible. I have no problem using photoshop, after effects, illustrator etc. with my FCP. Although the computer and software costs much more.

as for PC. they are much cheaper and the software i think will be less, (I'm not sure) but if money is the real problem, it may be your only choice.. and maybe you can upgrade later to avid which i have only briefly looked at but is supposed to be quite good, but a bit on the complicated side.

My advice is don't cheap out on the price, it would be better to get a better product for more, and slowly piece together a system, instead of just blowing your money on something just because its less expensive.. Remember the MAC is build for this work, when they design it, they put all the stuff we need in here... I have a g4 power book and G5 powermac and both are incredible... both have duel monitor hook ups so you can expand down the road.

thats just my opinion...
good luck

Mike
 
I run both PC and MAC. I have 5 AMD 64 box's for graphic production, and 1 dual 2.7 G5 for video editing. Both platforms have plus and minus (my 5 AMD's costs about the same as my 1 powermac).

OS10 is a great OS. It is very stable, and my workflow for video is great. I've editing projects on the following systems:
NewTek video toaster 3 & 4
Insync Speed Razer & Blade 2 (both now gone)
Apple Final Cut Pro 4.5 and now 5.
AVID Express

In terms of stability, MAC by far is better. Windows tends to crash alot more....it's just a bloated OS.

Avid has better colour correction tools. But my workflow on MAC has been best. And making high quality DVD's is very easy....much easier than Adobe Encore (I don't care for Adobe's interface too much).

Usually I went to a post house or another company edit suit. When I decided to build my own edit suite ( I am a producer....not an editor...so I usually didnt edit myself) I choose MAC and Final Cut Pro, and have no regrets at all. Especially with multicam editing...which Adobe doesn't even offer, only AVID and NEWTEK Toaster (with a plugin can you do this).

I think you should look at your options carefully....if you will recoup your costs quickly...go MAC. If your broke...build a PC and get Vegas or Premier...you'll be able to edit fairly cheaply. If your doing a feature or something long form..go MAC. TRUST ME. And AVID works on MAC as well. You have 2 viable options.
 
well said... I don't have much experience with PC and editing... like i said I'm not a pro.. but i agree with everything esperman said about the mac and FCP
 
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