Thoughts....
FCP 5 being expensive: Back when it was sold, it was one of the cheapest professional options out there. Cheaper than Avid...cheaper than Adobe Creative suite.
Age: FCP 5 is 6+ years old. First off, in terms of monitary return, you should have easily made up the cost of the application by now, if you use it to earn a living. Recouped your cost.
Second...6+ years in terms of software is VERY old. Asking it to run on current OS software...no matter what app and OS we are talking about...is asking a lot. This is one reason many software companies don't upgrade their OS...to remain compatible with the software they need. This will run perfectly fine on an older machine running 10.3, through 10.6. And if it is FCP 5.1, it will work on Intel macs. If it is 5.0...it will only run on PowerPCs, so you will be stuck needing to use a G5 or other PowerPC mac.
Options:
- Find a copy of FCP 7 (Final Cut Studio 3) on ebay. Sorry, it won't be cheap either...the asking price I'm finding matches what it initially sold for. Very in demand app.
- Look at Adobe CS 6...Premiere Pro CS6 if you only want the app. You don't need to shell out $1700 all at once if you want, there's the Creative Cloud that enables you to rent it for $50 a month. That's $600 a year...and all the upgrades are free as long as you do that.
- Look at Avid Symphony or Media Composer. There is crossgrade pricing for FCP users.
http://community.avid.com/forums/t/114517.aspx
- Stick to an older machine and older OS if you insist on sticking with FCP 5. It will work fine. It just won't be state of the art, and won't work with a majority of newer cameras.