Need to know which PowerBook to get???

J

jrod81

Veteran
Hey guys,
I am about to start shooting a 10 minute short in about a week. In order to offload P2 cards, I am going to buy a laptop. Because I am an Apple guy (of recent) and use FCP I really want to get a mac laptop. I can't afford the new MacBook Pro with the P2 reader, and actually there is really no need for me to get the Intel Based MacBook Pro since I would have to buy an adapter for the P2 cards, so by default I am going to get a Powerbook. Now, as I understand it there are 12inch, 15inch, and 17inch models. I think the 12inch is called an IBook perhaps, and then the 15 and 17 are called PowerBooks. So, my question is... do all of these have the PCMCIA slot that I need for offloading?
Secondly, when I go to look at one (because I will be buying used of course) is there a way to make sure the slot is working. If I bring a P2 card with me, can I just put it in the slot and know that it is working or will software need to be on the computer first?
thanks guys for all the help
jared
 
I use a 15" PBG4/1.67 ($550 on ebay last fall).

For offloading only - you do not need FCP - and 15" is fine. You're simply moving large computer files around (ie from P2 card to hard drive). I think you do want to have all the current p2 drivers installed - they are available on panasonics site. The following is a link to the "support & resources" page on the hvx200A

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...oupId=34401&surfModel=AG-HVX200A&displayTab=R

Click on the download drivers link and follow the instructions.


My workflow is to separate the transferring of footage from the ingesting footage into FCP. I am usually in the field and handing off all the footage onto my clients hard drive (ie I use the laptop as a passthru device and do not store footage on the internal drive). I will usually also make a back up copy on to my own portable drive.

As part of transferring footage I like to spot check clips from the drive (not the card) and I use P2 Logpro for this. I also use Shotput Pro to automatically transfer the files once I insert a p2 card into the laptop.

You don't have to use this software - I do because they have made my workflow smoother and faster. Panasonic has some free software for these purposes (transferring & playback), but Panny does not "support" their software on the older Macs - doesn't mean it won't work - but don't expect any help from Panasonic unless you're using an intel laptop.

If you do have FCP installed on your "P2 Capture Computer" you could also use that to spot check playback of clips - but I have seen instances where FCP will playback a clip fine, but it will not import it without problems

If you are using the same computer to capture footage as well as edit you might want the larger screen for editing reasons.

The 12" PB does NOT have the slot, no ibook has it as well - so your choice is 15" or 17" Powerbook G4.
 
thanks a ton for all that. i am not using it for editing so i will go with the 15 in an effort to hopefully save money. i have looked at shotput pro and will probably just go with that since it seems to be the popular choice.
anyone know of a video tutorial of shotput pro... i'd like to see it in action before purchasing it. i found nothing of it on youtube.
 
I'd recommend you do install FCP on the Powerbook. It works great as a P2 capture station, and you can do a quick edit if you like while you're in there. In any case, whatever you do will be instantly FCP-native, so it's very easy to work with from there on. I use a 15" 1.67 GHz model, which was the last, fastest PB G4 made. Mine has 2 GB of RAM (which is the max) and a 100 GB hard drive. I use two external firewire 800 hard drives for capture and backup.

A 17" is nice, but they're a bit bulky for my taste, and tend to cost a fair bit more. You can almost always find a few nice ones of either size for sale on ebay. At the moment, prices for the fastest 15" models are between $500-700. Note that there were two 15" 1.67 GHz models. The later (last) one has a higher resolution display (1440x960 IIRC) and a couple of other improvements, and don't tend to cost much more (if any) so I'd recommend those exclusively.
 
a 1.5ghz and up G4 powerbook (of any size as long as it has a pcmcia slot) will be fine. until about 12 weeks ago i used a 17" 1.0 hgz powerbook for p2 offload and basic dvcproHD editing in the field. i say "basic" becuase it was fine for general cuts and dissolves but for anything with graphics or rendering IT WAS HELLA SLOW!

i installed fcp6 on it only to find out fcp 6 REQUIRES 1.5ghz or better to run.

if you are running any version of fcp5 a 1.0ghz machine with 1 gig of ram will "work"

ANOTHER thing to consider is if you run the adobe stuff, after effects specifically. CS3 will run fine on a G4 but CS4 REQUIRES an intel mac.
 
Last edited:
can anyone suggest the best External Harddrives for transferring from powerbook. Im going to be using the powerbook in the field so a hardrive that can power itself off the usb is geat.
 
just go with the wd passport... i actually have a 320GB that i would sell you if you are interested, just shoot me a pm...
 
As far as Powerbooks go i would try and get an Intel based one , simply because you will be updating again real soon if you don't. Also FCP Studio 2 and the upcoming 3 is Intel based for speed. Almost everything is based around Intel processors nowadays and you can find a 15" Intel PB on Ebay for $600.00. The last thing you need in the field is that awful spinning Mac beach ball.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top