Hardware for editing Canon footage

[gshort]

Hi all, my trusty Macbook is finally on its way out thanks to its increasing kernel panics! Ive been wondering how it would be to edit on a Macbook Air. Obviously its versatile size is a plus and its small footprint. I dont think I want to go to a desktop as its too restricting for me. I want to run Final Cut Pro (7 not X) and the CS suite but most of my edits are shorts around 10 minutes or so in Final Cut. ALso some fairly light After effects work and RAW images in Photoshop, any footage will almost exclusively shot on Canons so no 2K to worry about! I really like the idea of the solid state drives in the Airs but have no idea about reliability of them. Does anyone have any experience editing on Airs? Obviously MBPs are geared more towards what we do but the Air really intrigues me! So, pros? Cons?

 

[Gary Huff]

The problem with the Airs is limited USB ports (and USB only, no Firewire), so if you use any external storage, you'll need to wait for Thunderbolt drivers and adapters. Also, the internal storage won't be a lot unless you go full out. You can definitely make the Air work in the way you describe, but if I were you I'd spec it out all the way, which means it'll get expensive.

 

[gshort]

Yeah All valid points. I was thinking of something like a 2TB USB drive for archival and Time Machine etc. With a smaller thunderbolt drive to hold the footage I am currently editing thus leaving the internal storage fairly untouched. Thunderbolt is more than fast enough for data transferal to edit straight from the drive and once the edit is done it can be sent directly to the USB drive or the web etc. I would also want a separate 1TB USB purely for completed projects, something as secure as possible. Then there would be a permanent web version as well as full res backup in two places.