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Gherkin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 9, 2004
674
305
Just got a brand new MBP, check my sig for specs.

I have a Canon 5DII. Love it. Looking for the best way to edit my footage.

I have the Adobe Production Premium package. Got it from my university for $400 but didn't open it yet. Not sure if I should keep this, go with Final Cut Express, or splurge and go for Final Cut Studio.

Honestly I'm thinking FCExpress might be the way to go for now because it will be the smallest learning curve and it will just be one program to learn. Then in like 2 years I can upgrade to Studio and start learning stuff like Color and Motion.

FCE is $200 though, and it's tempting to go with Production Premium as it's only $200 more, but you get so much value with it.

any thoughts/advice?
 

handsome pete

macrumors 68000
Aug 15, 2008
1,725
259
If you already have production premium then I would stick with it. The value you get with the other bundled software supersedes the money you'll save by going with FCE. Most NLEs have a familiar interface and work in similar ways. By learning Premiere, you'll get experience with a full featured NLE.

Should you choose to switch to Final Cut down the road, then the learning curve won't be too difficult. Plus you will have had access to After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc. Most of these are programs you will likely need even if you do have Final Cut Pro.

As for editing 5D footage, my suggestion is convert it to a more editor friendly format like ProRes. While Premiere can edit h264 natively, it will tax your machine a bit and something like ProRes will give you more latitude when it comes to grading/adding effects should you need to do that.

For what it's worth, I'm a Final Cut editor and own a 7D.
 

Gherkin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 9, 2004
674
305
Yea, I'm interested in Premiere's ability to supposedly work with native h.264 files.

A big part of this ability from what I've read is the Mercury Engine, which isn't supported by the graphics card in my MBP. So that sucks. But I've also read about some feature that let's you edit HD footage in smaller resolutions which makes editing smoother. Then when you export, it exports in full HD (or whatever resolution you choose). Plus Premiere CS5 is 64-bit, while FCE and FCP are 32-bit only.
 

handsome pete

macrumors 68000
Aug 15, 2008
1,725
259
What you're referring to is editing with proxies or offline editing. All NLEs support some version of that.


While having the option to edit h264 natively is nice, the reason I suggested converting to a better format is that it will hold up to effects and grading better. Of course you can't add information that's not already there in the original footage, but when you color grade/add filters, vfx, etc. a codec with better color space and bit depth will perform better.
 

KeithPratt

macrumors 6502a
Mar 6, 2007
804
3
While having the option to edit h264 natively is nice, the reason I suggested converting to a better format is that it will hold up to effects and grading better. Of course you can't add information that's not already there in the original footage, but when you color grade/add filters, vfx, etc. a codec with better color space and bit depth will perform better.

But setting your render codec to a high quality one negates that. (I'd assume — I don't use Premiere.)

The question is whether you can get any RT performance applying effects to native H.264, and whether a MacBook Pro is even suitable for native H.264 editing.

In its current form, I don't think Final Cut Express is ideally suited to editing 5D footage as I don't think it can edit 23.976fps or genuine 1080p.
 
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