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Final Cut Express 2 Questions

JOD8FY

JOD8FY

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 22, 2004
633
0
United States
Happy Tuesday Everyone,

I think I'm going to buy Final Cut Express 2 in the near future, but I need some questions answered first.

1. Does anyone use Final Cut Express/Pro? What do you think of it?

1.5. What are your system specs? My signature states my *future* system. Right now I have the base model 12". Do you think this *future system* is enough? I also have an internal 200GB 7200RPM Hard Drive and an internal 8x LaCie DVD Burner in a 2 bay external enclosure.

2. Is there a possiblilty that Apple would release a new version of Final Cut Express at NAB?

3. $300 is pretty steep. Does anyone know where to get a good deal on this? Does Apple sell refurbished software? Probably not, just thought I'd ask.

Thanks for all your responses in advance.
JOD8FY
 
go for it

i made my move from imovie to FCE right when it was released. and all i can say is that it BLOWS imovie right out the window.

if you havent had any experience with it b4 at first it may seem intimidating but it really isnt. i just watched the training video that was included with it and had myself alot of fun.

as for the system ur gonna b using. they only problem u may have is the 12" display. its just small to be editing video on. at least for me i think it would b. but as long as you have a lot of harddrive space you'll be good.

oh and btw i forget wat your future system had but if ur investing $300 on FCE and a few grand on a new comp. make sure u have a dvd burner. once you make your great videos trust me your gonna want to put the icing on the cake and make a pretty dvd with idvd or dvd pro.. good luck
 
Move to FCP

I purchased FCE and it was a mistake - I should have purchased FCP. All the extra goodies (LiveType is sooooo cool) make the difference worth it.

HOWEVER - I have an education discount (I'm a part time college student) and this makes all the diff in the world when it comes to price.

If you can make the FCP on an Ed Deal - DO IT!

iMovie is OK for quick and dirty home movies (which BLOW AWAY ANYTHING YOU CAN DO ON A PC) - but if you are ready for the next level - you can't go wrong with FCP - once you get over the learning curve - there are only a few things it CAN"T do.
 
$300 for final cut is very cheap, you get a lot for your money. I agree a 12" screen is going to be your problem. i use a 17" @1280x1024 and it is a bit to small.

When you out grow FCE you can always get the pro upgrade. I did this a while back and feel it was worth the money.

Express is unlikely to get a major upgrade at NAB but hopefully Pro will get a bump up.
 
When I started go outgrow iMovie (don't get me wrong, iMovie rocks) I got the previous version of FCE. I acquired a copy of Adobe Premiere and traded that for FCE (Apple had a promotion a the time). I've since bought the version 2 upgrade. It's a bit different than iMovie but not incredibly hard to use. It blows Adobe Premiere away. I can see the day when I need FCP to get the bundled apps like live type.

My system is a dual 1ghz G4 with 1.25GB RAM.

No deals out there. Prices are pretty much set in stone. You'll save about $5.00 buying through a reseller like MacMall. If you can find the older version for sale it should be cheaper. There isn't exactly refurbed software but I've seen open boxes for sale at a discount--again it's not much; maybe $10.
 
FCE/FCP are great programs. I use Pro because I had it before Express. You do get a lot of horsepower for $300. If you need to you can later ugrade to FCP for only the difference. I wouldn't use this on anything smaller than 15". I use Pro on my 15" 1Ghz TiBook and it runs fine. Remember unless you get Pro you will need 13gig/hour of footage. That's how much HD space you'll need. Firewire drives are pretty cheap these days. Pro has an offline option that cuts that by about 90%. Pro also has batch capturing and more media manager options then Express. Whether or not LiveType and the multimedia add-on are worth the extra is debateable. You'll definitely want Photoshop as well.
 
Your specs are fine...you'll be able to utilize a lot of the realtime rendering and such....

It all comes down to what type of video you'll be working with and how much patience you have.

I've been happy with my G4 Sawtooth (400 Mhz) with FCE with DV video for a long time

Then i started a project with mpeg2 files..very sllooowww...

I would say go with FCP only if you want the LiveType, Soundtrack etc stuff, the programs are essentially the same minus a couple higher-end features here and there.
 
I can get Final Cut Express 2 at my university bookstore for $119. Pretty sweet deal indeed. I'm also a film major, so I'm eyeing it up. The only thing is, I have pretty limited access to a DV camcorder, so it may be kinda pointless to buy it.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I've thought of a few more questions though.

1. I have used Adobe Premiere in the past quite frequently. How does Final Cut Express compare to it?

2. Some of you suggested that I should go with Final Cut Pro. While the cost will probobaly keep me from changing my mind no matter what you tell me, I'm interested in hearing why you think so.

Thanks again,
JOD8FY
 
WOW!!!

I just did a search on the Macrumors' shop section and I found Final Cut Express 2 for $249.00! It's online from a place called iUnitek. Customer reviews rated the company a 5 out of 5, but I was wondering if anyone here had any first hand experience or has heard of them. Considering I couldn't find a price break of more than $3 before, this seems like a great deal!


JOD8FY
 
JOD8FY said:
I just did a search on the Macrumors' shop section and I found Final Cut Express 2 for $249.00! It's online from a place called iUnitek. Customer reviews rated the company a 5 out of 5, but I was wondering if anyone here had any first hand experience or has heard of them. Considering I couldn't find a price break of more than $3 before, this seems like a great deal!


JOD8FY
Click to expand...


It's cheaper if u can get educational discount on it, it's $199 (candian) w/ educational discount.
 
JOD8FY said:
Thanks everyone for your replies. I've thought of a few more questions though.

1. I have used Adobe Premiere in the past quite frequently. How does Final Cut Express compare to it?

2. Some of you suggested that I should go with Final Cut Pro. While the cost will probobaly keep me from changing my mind no matter what you tell me, I'm interested in hearing why you think so.

Thanks again,
JOD8FY
Click to expand...

FCE will kick Premiere's ass. Easier to use and more flexible.

Here's the significant difference's between Pro and Express.
Express can only edit DV movies. If you have an analog input card Express is not for you, you need Pro.

Pro has an optional offline codec. That means you can capture tons more footage per gig, edit your movie and then recreate it using an on-line (original quality) edit. This save you drive space when you go to on-line because you are only capturing exactly what you need.

Pro has batch capturing. This is a feature I couldn't live without. It may not be necessary for your style of editing.

Those are the features that jump out to me the most. Check out http://www.apple.com/finalcut/ for more details.

If you're doing just DV footage Express is probably all you need.

If you need to upgrade to Pro mid project that isn't a problem. Pro will accept Express files, although I've never tried it.

As far as price goes just remember, you probably can't upgrade educational products. If you buy Express, you can upgrade to Pro for the difference of the price. Not a bad value all around. You get a lot of extra programs for your $1000
 
i got it with my imac for $99 and haven't used it yet. im doing some work for school that im going to use FCE for, and it looks like it will turn out a lot better than imovie.
 
Hi
does adobe premiere, from verson 5 upwards have the ability to read from a analog box converter, like the ADVC100. If not waht software does.

Thanx
 
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