GH3 Which Is My Better Final Cut Editing Machine? Please Advise...

L

larrys

Well-known member
I am currently waiting for the arrival of my Panasonic GH3. I wonder if you can advise me on which of my two Macs will be the better one for editing on FCPX?

I have a two year old iMac: 2.93 GHz, Intel Core i7 with 8 GB ram.

My other Mac is the Retina Macbook Pro with 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz, and 16 GB ram.

Thanks for feedback!
 
Thanks. Looking forward to testing the machine with the 72mb all-intra footage from the GH3.
 
You can install FCPX on both if needed.

You can also use your iMac as a second monitor for your MacBook Pro if screen size is an issue.
 
Thanks, David. I didn't know that you can use the iMac as a monitor for the laptop! How do I do that?
 
Well, I just read the article and you can't use the ports on the iMac when it is used as the monitor, so I would need a docking station.
 
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Yeah, the MBP would be better. But the iMac should still do quite well. I have a 2010 27" iMac with an i3 and 4GB RAM. It does pretty well with FCP7 using 7200 RPM LaCie drives through either Firewire 800 or USB 2.0. Rendering for graphics and transcoding to ProRes 422 would move faster with the i7-- significantly so. But it still works fine for me. And when I can finally force myself to move to Premiere, that should be less of a problem from what I understand. A lot less rendering required while editing and no transcoding necessary (it can edit natively).

For FCPX, I think that it transcodes to ProRes (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). But it allows you to work on the native source material from the card itself during that process, so transcoding shouldn't be a problem with it. I couldn't get used to FCPX, but I learned it to teach to my college students and this was one of the several features that I did really like. It was a heck of a lot easier to teach than FCP7, too. lol.

As far as using the iMac as a monitor-- it works quite well. I actually using mine (27") with a Windows PC for playing video games. I had to buy a gfx card for the PC that had mini display port built in for it to work. But it's pretty sweet. The source has to be mini display port-- you can't convert on the source's end from DVI with an adapter. Now I think the current MBP's might use Thunderbolt for monitor output. And I think Thunderbolt is the same connector type as mini display port. I might be completely wrong on those parts, but if I'm correct, then you'll still be fine. I just wanted to make the point that the source cannot be DVI or VGA with an adapter. I had to find that out for myself as no Apple employee had any idea back when I got this machine.
 
They both would work. If you want some crazy speed invest in Thuderbolt drive or a SSD. I have 17" MBP with 16GB with a 256SSD and its beast.
 
aonavy said:
They both would work. If you want some crazy speed invest in Thuderbolt drive or a SSD. I have 17" MBP with 16GB with a 256SSD and its beast.
Click to expand...

I envy you! lol. I missed out on Thunderbolt by about 6 months. But I needed my iMac when I needed it since my MBP had a hardware failure and I had two large projects with deadlines coming up at the time (Oct. 2010).
 
Crazy how many people dont know about:
http://www.barefeats.com/

Not sure, why the 2 year old i7 is being compared here. It is a wonderfully powerful computer, and can do the job for your for the next few years ofc. But the MBP offers Thunderbolt and USB3, Nividia Graphics (Look at Adobe CS6 numbers vs. ATI), as well as a faster processor and SSD internals.

Look at your MBP stats in BAREFEATS.COM, as well as the SSD drive options. IMO, you should get the Lacie Little big drive refurbished* ($209 on Amazon). Then grab 2 x 256-SSD drives (Crucial/Samsung 830/Vertex 4) and throw them in, edit with that and your gonna be "golden" for years!... nuff said.

On a side note, the GH2 (hacked) edits perfectly fine on my iMac i5 Thunderbolt. I grabbed my wifey a i7 MBP (Thunderbolt/USB3) and switched out the HD and optical drive with a SSD-raids, Full Ram! A beast! I can throw my Lacie Thunderbolt on there after my edits and I have myself a great render station when she isnt using it.
 
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GH3 came today, just ran a first test at Full HD, .MOV, 30p, 72mb. Put it into FCPX on my iMac and NO PROBLEM, really fast. Wow! Love having that MOV go right in and edit. Very cool, no more avchd.
 
I need help with this same computer selection, but for Premiere 6. Would one of the new standard iMacs work well with CS6? If someone could please provide a link to a good IMac that would work well for CS6 and the GH3, I would appreciate. I know very little about computers and I've been editing on a 5 year old PC with CS3 and need to upgrade!!!!
 
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