Upgrading suggestions

Question

Upgrading suggestions

I would like to get more seriously involved in making short (30 mins or less) documentary films. I have an old Canon GL-2, a Powerbook G$ with leopard and FCE. The laptop has only on firewire port and it's a challenge to get things to work using a firewire hub (it almost seems as if some features of FCE are limited with this set up, such as preview being disabled) so that I can store my scratch files on an external hard drive. Am I just have apple envy, or would you suggest that it's time to upgrade to Final Cut Studio and an iMac with multiple firewire ports. Thanks. Fred

Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Aug 9, 2009 5:29 AM

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Answer 1

Andy Mees

Level 6

12,610 points

Aug 9, 2009 5:59 AM in response to Frederick Miller

+... would you suggest that it's time to upgrade to Final Cut Studio and an iMac with multiple firewire ports+

Fred
That won't make a jot of difference, inasmuch as there is only 1 firewire bus on the iMac, same as your Powerbook. What's more there is even less expandability available on that machine. Save your money for the time being, just get a PCMCIA firewire adapter for your Powerbook ... that will give you an extra firewire bus.
Best
Andy

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Answer 2

Tom T.

Level 4

1,760 points

Aug 9, 2009 6:21 AM in response to Frederick Miller

Frederick,

How deep are your pockets, because it sounds like you're looking at an initial outlay of several thousand $$.

Having the latest hardware and software is usually better than just barely getting by with older technology. Do you plan on recovering your investment by selling the documentary films you'll make, or is this just a hobby for you?

In sum, I'd say it all depends on what your goal is, then you'll have to decided what it's worth to you to try to achieve that goal.

Tom T

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Answer 3

Aug 9, 2009 8:45 AM in response to Tom T.

Thanks.
The camera is fine for now. I have been lucky enough to get some prior work broadcast and some government contract work in the past. So it is possible that there would at least be some income from this. But, per the above post, it's not clear to me what the advantages would be in going with a desktop (other than larger screen). I was fairly sure that there were more firewire ports. Can you say a bit more about specific advantages to upgrading?
Thanks
Fred

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Answer 4

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Aug 9, 2009 9:00 AM in response to Frederick Miller

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9962070#9962070

If all you will shoot is DV for the foreseeable future, Andy's advice makes great sense. There is little in FCStudio3 that will be of use to you. The Powerbook G4 + a fast external drive can certainly cut DV/NTSC material without much issue. And, once you add the proper PCMCIA firewire adapter to your kit, you'll solve the Canon connection blues.

If you are upgrading to FCS3 and/or changing to an AVCHD, MPEG2 or MPEG4 based format, an intel processor is needed.

x

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Answer 5

Aug 9, 2009 5:51 PM in response to Studio X

Thanks very much. Yes, that's all I'm intending to do for now. I do have a firewire port and LaCie external drive. I've had trouble capturing from the Canon GL-2, however, and so use a ZR 900 to upload clips. From other posts, it seems that there is some issue with Canon cameras sharing one firewire port. But, if this seems like a reasonable way to continue or if there is some other suggestion as to how I can use the GL-2 directly, I'm all set.
Again, thanks for the helpful suggestion.
Fred

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