Final Cut Pro X vs. iMovie

FCP X can handle mini DV easily.

You can create Events with specific names you can Keyword clips and/or identify as Favourutes.

Try a test on your demo copy.

Al

Yes, Color Correction is pretty slick.

You will step into another universe with FCP X compared to iMovie.

As usual, there are things to know to get best results.

It's in the manual, and only about 480 pages, well down on the legacy versions.

Al

rebbi wrote:

… My main question: the main killer feature of iMovie for me is how it allows you to catalogue all your video clips in a manner similar to how Aperture or iPhoto let you catalogue your photos.… What about FCP X? …

Far better than iMovie (or iPhoto) 😉

FCPX offers basicly two groups of meta-data: technically ones (date, format, length) and manual ones (birthdays, school, vacations, family, …)

It then offers to use such tags for filtering - when you index your material carefully and clever, it is a snap to dig out all "singing+party+grandma" stuff.

plus, FCPX does create automatically such 'playlists/albums/groups/younameit'!

The latest version, FCPX10.1, has implemented a very smart way to handle 'tons' of raw files. The new Libraries support to keep material on some external mass-storage devices, and handle only the Project-data locally. With a smart hardware-structure, it is easy to keep track with back-up-strategies without shuffling terabytes every week.

The better you structure your needs to such a data-base, the better FCPX supports you. I can only recommend: before importing just a minute of material, grab a stencil+paper and imagine, what you like to do now or the near future. THEN import and instantly index your material = I never managed to do that 'later', later means never 😁

concerning color-correction: real 'grading' is an art you don't learn within half an hour, but getting rid of color-casts, aligning diff. clips, or just 'givin' it a punch' is drop-dead-easy. I'm a hobbyist either, never thought of using scopes and such - but after watching a few tutorials by Larry Jordan or rippletraining, it is really, really easy.-

best investment in soft-ware (yepp, I wasted my coins for FC/e4 too - …) ever.

biggest time-thief ever = I spend soooo much time with my hobby 😝

I have an older MBPro (same specs)

It may be worth updating to 6 gig RAM.

I'm waiting for mine to arrive.

The older Mac seem to struggle with some jobs and I'm hoping the extra 2 gig is worth it.

Al

Is yours a 15" or 17" 3,1?

If so the 6 gig is upgrade is possible even the offical stuff says 4.

At the time gig sticks were 2 only, now there are 4 gig sticks.

You put in a 2 & 4.

Some use 2 x 4 but it's a waste as 6 is the REAL max this type of Mac can use.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/5300DDR2S6GP/

Your call. 🙂

Al

rebbi wrote:

… Now I just have to wrap my brain around Projects, Events and Libraries...😁

That's simple, trust me!

It is only un-usual 'optional' for a Macuser; in the past, Windows had the paradigm of allowing 'anything', including the option to get lost. Mac was restricted, therefor convenient.

'Events' means: all stuff from a day of recording (yeah, you can add stuff from other days too - optional). e.g I record soccer-matches with up to 6 cams simultaneously - one match, 6 cams, one Event. Raw data. kept untouched, Never altered. Can be used in any project. Again and again.

'Projects' means: the movie itself. Done from Events. Clips from Events. Clips from one Event or many. Or photos. Or graphics. Music, animations, voice-recordings... Erasing a project = no effect on your raws. Erasing an event = all Projects kaputt.

'Library' means: the place where all is saved. Think of it as a hard-drive!! Yes, a harddrive can contain many Events and even more Projects. Therefor Libraries: think of it as a hard-drive per 'job' - here it gets really 'optional': What is a 'job' for you? For me, it is a season: each season is one Library - 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 (yepp, soccer sasons are cross-years, so not usefull to use timestamps) . And I do a best-of Year In Review per season. That's in a job too. And special-cuts for the coaches. All in one Lib.

For others, a job is Event-driven: Every new-years-eve-party is a job; or, wedding-photographer: the Smiths, the Millers, the Jones (again: timestamp organization is here of no use)

Or, you're in animal documentary: one Lib for squirrels, one for cats, one for mammoths (???) -

A lib is just a collection of Raw&final movies, Events&Projects; there's always and at last ONE lib. Optional, you can have as many libs as you want or need. Like folders. But smarter = a Library collects automatically.

Event=media, Project=movie, Library=collection of all stuff. Or some stuff. 😁

rebbi wrote:

Alchroma,

I wish we had the same specs, but mine is early an early 2008 MBP (last model before they went to unibody) and it maxes out at 4 gigabytes of RAM, so I'm stuck. 😢 At least I have the fastest CPU they were offering at the time.

Since the newer MBP's (the Retina ones, anyway) have ditched firewire and all my video so far (12 years worth!!) is on a firewire MiniDV camera, I'm hanging on to this puppy until it falls apart. 😉

With a new mac and a $30 Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adapter, you can still use your mini DV and incredibly faster too (well, not to import the tapes, as that will still be real-time :-)).

rebbi wrote:

Also, I have several firewire 400 and 800 external drives, and I'm not convinced that trying to daisy-chain a DV camera off a FW drive connected to a thunderbolt-to-firewire cable when I have to ingest video to the hard drive is actually going to work.

It may work. It worked for me with Panasonic, JVC and Sony. But can't recall whether Canon did.

Russ