purchasing a macbook for a beginner in video editing

1. Arsalan Ibnalnasir
   Member

   

    

   Hello community,

    

   I'm looking to learn how to use Final Cut Pro and I'm buying a new laptop for the task. I'm going to be traveling over the next year so I can't buy an iMac, so I'll have to settle for a laptop instead. I want to spend as little as possible, but I do want to purchase something sufficient for me to create hours of video using the most recent version of FC out there.

    

   I also want to learn photoshop, if that means anything.

   Posted 7 months ago #

2. shastabroadcaster
   Member

   

   I managed to score a 3 year old MacbookPro 17" with FCP installed via e-Bay and am quite happy after more than a year.  As long as it's duo-core Intel or better with at least 2G of RAM, you should be OK editing DV or HDV.  If you're going to edit a more processor intensive codec like AVCHD you'll want a little more horsepower.  I would not try to edit on anything smaller than 17", it's just too frustrating.  I'd advise buying from a seller with a high feedback score and read the reviews carefully. Don't be afraid to ask questions, if they don't respond in a way that gives you confidence, move on to another seller, there's a lot of them.  Hope that helps.

   Just as an aside, if you mean you want to learn how to edit using FCP-X...well, just know that a lot of professional editors have turned away from Apple to Adobe or Avid because of the new interface.  If you're just starting out, you may not be quite so...fossilized in your editing habits, but beware if you have to do work on an older, more traditional setup it makes for a steep learning curve.

   Posted 7 months ago #

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