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What do I need to get him so he can make movies.

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Looking to get my son a Mac so he can make movies. He has a talent for it and can only seem to go so far on the PC we have. He uses a Canon 7D and has posted some on youtube but is limited as I have mentioned.

I would love to say money is not an object, but it is. What are the most vital things to spend money on? Memory, storage, processor speed? Something else? Any help you can offer would be much appreciated.
 
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Hi and welcome to the forum Dollo ...

First thing is yes the Mac.....
As for software or Apps when you buy a new Mac you will get the iLife 11 Suite and within that you will get iPhoto11 iMovie11 and Garageband. All awesome Apps and being only been out within the last few months it is the latest and have made some major advancements in all Apps.
I know i will have people to back me, but if he only just starting out, it is my belief the iMovie 11 part of the Suite will be ample for him to start out with video editing and such.
The Mac comes with so many great Apps and its one thing to look at when you do 1st get it. As we can do photo editing in our simple basic Preview :) Anyways

As for the Mac.
Do you want portability ?? If not then the iMac is the way to go, and ANY iMac and its specs will be sufficient for any light/medium video editing. So will suit your son.

If you want portability and to do the job, i would have to recommend the 15" i5 MBP. They have good screen real-estate and the Specs again will be sufficient for what he wants to do.
I would even go as far as saying the 13" MBP (which i own) would do the job. The only pitfall of the 13" is the size of the screen. I personally love it, but it still does pack a punch when it comes to computing though ...

I really comes down to it, RAM and Processor speed when it comes to specs ..... The more RAM the smoother and quicker everything will work and the Processor speaks for itself.

Not sure where you live, but when considering buying from  Online Store, dont forget to check out the Refurb Store as you get a refurb Mac with the same warranty as a new machine. And most of these are new ... Something to keep in mind.

Hope it helps some but post back if you have more queries :)

Cheers

EDIT : If you want to upgrade RAM and HD's DONT DONT DONT get them to do it when you spec the machine through , as they charge ridiculous amounts. Go to OWC ~ MacSales and put in Mac specs and they will show you all compatible HD's and RAM for your machine. Good prices and quality tested
 
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Thank you for the advice.

I may have miscommunicated his ability, he is actually pretty good with it and has taken our PC and a Sony Video editing program as far as it would let him go, that is why we are stepping up at this time. We do not need portability, going to the web-site to order there are different options, do I go big early and go with the Intel Core i5 or i7 or is there something else you think more important to put the money towards- hardware wise? Memory? Other?

Thank you for the upgrade guidance too.
 
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Well you do have to think about future proofing as well .....
But at the moment ANY iMac will be sufficient for what he wants to do. Then buy extra RAM and self install it.
So now it really comes down to what you can afford. If you can get the best 27" i7 .... That way you have future proofed yourself and the 27" from what i have seen and reviews from members is exquisite ..... So thats it $$ and do remember the Refurb Store

Cheers
 
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chas_m

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With digital filmmaking, extra RAM is nice but STORAGE is the most important thing.

As TM said, pretty much any iMac (and up) can do the job very well and should be good for years ... but I would say you should plan on buying *TWO* large external hard drives (Firewire if at all possible). The first one will be for media storage (because you *never* want the boot drive to get too full. Trust me on this!) and the second one is to back up the first. Backing up = paramount.
 
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When you say Sony, I am going to assume you mean Vegas Pro. It depends on what his needs as an editor are, but, if you say he is no longer able to progress passed what Vegas offers, then iMovie will not suffice. It would technically be downgrading his editor if you only allow him to work in iMovie.

Im an editor, far above average I would say, and my personal opinion would be that he is not using Vegas to the full potential(if you guys are using Vegas). It is quite a robust editor has developed quite a reputation in the enthusiast and pro-sumer worlds. It would, in my opinion, only be trumped by Adobe Premier CS5, Final Cut, and Avid MC. So, if you guys do get a new Mac, it will not be equipped with equivalent editing software to what you are using now out of the box. You'll have to purchase separate software, most likely Final Cut Express.

chas_m, with digital film making (editing), RAM and storage are important, but the processor is the most important thing. Depending on your software, the video card can accelerate your machines performance 10 fold (no joke). Premiere CS5 will get those kinds of performance gains when using certain nVidia cards. This is the only program at the moment that gets this much acceleration from the video card. I imagine most future programs will follow this, maybe with different video cards though.

I think you should be asking yourselves if investing in a new Mac is really going to suit his needs? The canon 7d will hugely benefit form his ability to edit native DSLR footage in premiere, no transcoding necassary as long as your computer has the muscle (with an i7 processor alone, it will). Unless he is intent on using Final Cut, theres no need to go from Windows to OS X. Premiere operates on both platforms, and you can take advantge of the support for nvidia cards as the iMac will not have the option for those cards (the cards start at about $85).

So "stepping up" for video editing really does not require using a Mac computer, and you may very well be stepping down, especially in the short term while he jumps to a lesser equipped, never before used video editing application (iMovie).
 
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I think you should be asking yourselves if investing in a new Mac is really going to suit his needs?


Ummmm and why wouldnt it ??? As i stated above ANY i repeat ANY iMac will do what he wants to do with Video Editing ...... The next step is a Mac Pro and that is just a over kill unless he is Tim Burton .........

The parent has already said he cant go any further on the Windows box he is on... Why ?? Its a few years old and out of date ?? I dont really know, but to me it sounds like they need to upgrade there PC so a Mac would be fine for his continuing adventure into Video Editing ...
 
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I take it that upgrading the RAM and HDDs of the current Windows PC has been thought about? As for the programmes currently being used on the PC, exactly what is it about it that makes you say that your boy has gone as far as he can with it?
What is it that he wants to do that the current software won't let him?
I only ask those questions because if he is used to the Windows environment, changing over to a Mac, whatever version, can be a bit tricky. Plus, as slyTX says, there is a lot of choice with Windows software.
Cheers and good luck with it.
Steve
 
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Ummmm and why wouldnt it ??? As i stated above ANY i repeat ANY iMac will do what he wants to do with Video Editing ...... The next step is a Mac Pro and that is just a over kill unless he is Tim Burton .........

The parent has already said he cant go any further on the Windows box he is on... Why ?? Its a few years old and out of date ?? I dont really know, but to me it sounds like they need to upgrade there PC so a Mac would be fine for his continuing adventure into Video Editing ...

I said so in the reply. If he gets an iMac, he wont have Vegas and the editor he will have will be iMovie which is a less robust program in comparison. He will have to get a Mac, then Vegas (or other software of choice). He could get/build a new Windows machine and continue using his software, which is certainly adequate, and spend money he saved on additional camera equipment if they wished.

I think the only question left to be asked to the OP is why is the boy looking to migrate to a Mac from PC, has he had a better experience with them or is he looking at some OS X only software?
 
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I would hesitate to move to Mac for video production. Mac systems are extremely limited in the area of video, excluding DV and HDV workflows. Remember that Macs are largely task-oriented systems, not general use computers. Vegas Pro is a very powerful NLE, and you'd have to move to Premiere CS or Final Cut Pro to get similar abilities -- and neither of those are necessarily an "upgrade" of any kind. Even Vegas Studio (consumer edition) is more robust than iMovie.

Indeed, what is the motivation for moving to Mac? My main ownership reason is Lightroom and DVD Studio Pro, the latter of which is only available on Mac. MAMP is rather nice too, because it doesn't really hobble the system like it can in Windows. But when it comes to pro video work, I sit at a Windows XP system.

Compare video tools to the tools found in a general handyman's toolbox. He has a hammer, screwdrivers, wrenches, chisels, etc. Windows has all of these. The "Mac version" of that toolbox, for example, would be devoid of screwdrivers -- it would be 100% impossible to screw a screw with the available tools. The major issue with Mac is codecs, especially lossless intermediaries that are really important for video production. There are also quite a few specialty tools that simply have no equivalent on a Mac, and because they must be run hardware-native, you can't really rely on VMs. Specialty hardware also excludes even BootCamp as an option.

To me, "can only seem to go so far on the PC" sounds like more of an education issue, not a platform one. Just learn more about the tools.
 
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Dollo, I think you need to explain how the PC is limiting your son. Is the hardware slow or limited in some particular way, is the software limited? What new direction is he trying to go into that you think he needs a whole new computer? You may be able to better use your money on software or hardware upgrades to his current PC.

Mac systems are extremely limited in the area of video, excluding DV and HDV workflows. Remember that Macs are largely task-oriented systems, not general use computers.

In which universe have you come from? Certainly not this one.
 
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chas_m

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kpmedia: whatever you're smoking, you should give that up.

Suffice to say that was the least-reality-based post I've ever seen on this forum.
 

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