Thinking of switching to Mac for Video Editing..Need advice

Hello, this is my first post..so hi!

Alright, so here is my dilemma.

I've recently started to get serious about video editing, I have a lower end, camera (Canon ZR60) and a few lights and I've been messing around with it and editing on my PC using Adobe CS4 Production Premium (Premier and After Effects) I've really enjoyed my experience with these programs and have grown very comfortable with their functions.

After talking with a few friends and professors, they have all told me I'd be better off learning FCP as it is considered the Industry Standard, along with Avid.

So I saw a few deals and I'm talking to guy who is willing to trade his old PowerMac G5 for a laptop I rarely use. I figure this may be a great way for me to gain experience with FCP before breaking the bank and buying one of the new intel mac pros.

The laptop I'm willing to trade is the newer (late 2009) Dell studio 14z. Would this be a wise investment?

I know my laptop is higher end then the 2003 G5 but I rarely use and when I do it's for checking email or playing WoW in the living room..

So is this a wise trade if my primary goal is to expand my knowledge on FCP? Or is the difference between PC and Mac not that noticable?

Thanks for your help!

Well welcome to the forum

1stly as you say its a deal in the $ amount where you will loose out in this deal, so it really comes down to you personally.
If you swap/trade will you really get into editing full on and make good use of the G5??
This will make it a wise trade. It really is a personal choice
Its a good stepping stone though to learn the OS and find how easy and enjoyable  has made it. I think once you start and see what a beautiful OS this is, you will be down the nearest  store looking at buying a MB or MBP, but before hand look at there online refurb store as this has great deals with upto and around 15% of the price of a new machine and you get the benefits of full warranty as well..
Go for it and take the leap into the world of Apple

Cheers

pretextsnot

Thank you for the quick response!

Of course I am really looking into getting very serious about video editing.

I'm currently editing on an AMD Phenom Quad Core system that does great with rendering and what not. But everyone says that FCP is the way to go.

I would very much find myself buying a MBP in the following months and I've used Mac in the Past.

I know money wise I'd be losing out and I'd be losing all portability. But that's not really an issue to me as I will be getting a Mac laptop this year sometime.
But knowledge wise it seems like a good deal. I'm just not sure if it's the best idea given I already have a decent computer..

The G5 is old PowerPC technology. The last OS X system available for it is Leopard, which is the previous version. Also the current Final Cut Studio version doesn't officially work on that older architecture. There is a thread on people getting it to work over at macrumors.

Oh, check out lowendmac.com for specs of the G5s. There were several versions so I think you'd want to more about that to know if the deal is reasonable.