most affordable Apple laptop for editing and color correcting, grading

C

CBS

Active member
Any tip for the minimum requirements but enough for a decent work (as much realtime as possible) ?
 
Apple Laptop for COLOR GRADING as well? You only have ONE option. The 17" MacBook Pro. Because you need a capture card (Input/Output Device) to get a video signal to a broadcast monitor for proper monitoring of your image. And the only cards that work with laptops, and COLOR, are the Matrox MXO2 and AJA IO Express...and they connect via Express 34, which is only available on the 17" model. There is an IO Device that works via firewire 800...a couple. The AJA IO HD, but that runs $3500. ANd then there is the MOTU V4HD...but both model won't work with COLOR, as COLOR doesn't send an HD signal out via firewire. Limitation of the software I suppose.

But, if you grade in FCP using the built in tools, then you can use those firewire options.

You cannot grade, with any degree of accuracy, using the COLOR viewer or FCP Canvas. They aren't designed to give you a full quality image. Plus computer displays give you different colors than TVs and broadcast monitors do.

So...if you stick with using FCP only for things...you need a MacBook Pro. An iBook might not cut it for a lot of things...processing power and graphics card being the biggest issue.
 
Shane Ross said:
Apple Laptop for COLOR GRADING as well? You only have ONE option. The 17" MacBook Pro. Because you need a capture card (Input/Output Device) to get a video signal to a broadcast monitor for proper monitoring of your image.
Click to expand...
How much do you think it is necessary to spend then?
 
CBS said:
Any tip for the minimum requirements but enough for a decent work (as much realtime as possible) ?
Click to expand...

I do this on a MacBook Pro 17" with 8GB ram and the system is really getting pushed from time to time, I wouldn't do this on something smaller/cheaper than a MacBookPro. Most is real time but dissolves and effects and color corrections need to be rendered, which has never been a problem for me because during the renders I can get a coffee or a sleep. I also have an external monitor (a pro Eizo) connected through the mini-port without extra graphics card and this works fine for me, but I mainly publish on the web, so if it looks good on my monitors, it looks good on the monitor of my clients as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top