Help me choose between final cut express and iMovie09

[Audiobuzz]

Hi all,

I have to do some video editing for some family videos and I am planning to move from underwater photography to underwater videography in the near future.

I have used adobe premiere before and loved it but now that I'm on the mac I'd like to use one of the mac equivalents.

I have the choice of Final cut Express or iMovie and while I was originally tending towards Final cut Express, the lack of a stabilization filter has me tending towards imovie. I can't justify the expense of Final Cut Studio just yet either.

I guess I could start with iMovie and then buy Final cut Express later as I get better but I'm hoping that I don't have to buy both. Passing the video through iMovie just to stabilize it and then work with the results in FCE is an option but I'm guessing it would add to the compression artefacts.

Is there any alternatives that will give me stabilization in finalcut express that is cheaper than buying imovie just to pass the video through?

Thanks

AB

 

[mikes70mustang]

just use imovie, if it does what you need and makes you happy then just stay with it. Always start with the cheapest option.

 

[Audiobuzz]

The only thing with that is that I know iMovie doesn't do the color correction that is needed for underwater video/photo shooting, so I know I'll need FCE at some point. I guess it can't hurt to have the rest of the iLife suite that comes with iMovie so start there and work up eh.

AB

 

[åidån]

The only thing with that is that I know iMovie doesn't do the color correction that is needed for underwater video/photo shooting, so I know I'll need FCE at some point. I guess it can't hurt to have the rest of the iLife suite that comes with iMovie so start there and work up eh.

AB

You know iLife comes with Mac's, right?

 

[Audiobuzz]

Only more recent macs.

I have a 17" MBP bought september 07. At that time Leopard had only just been released (mine came with tiger installed and a leopard upgrade disc in the box). iLife wasn't an inclusion at that time.

AB

 

[atlanticza]

IMovie and FCE are light years apart; and if you enjoyed Adobe Premiere, you're going to mighty disappointed with IMovie's lack of capabilities.

 

[faustfire]

Mighty disappointed would be the understatement of the year.

 

[Audiobuzz]

On further research and investigation, the tiger disks that came with my macbook have ilife08 on them. I clean installed leopard the day I got the laptop so had never even taken the tiger discs out of the box.

In either case, it has imovie08 which doesn't have the stabilization so I'm back to square one other than being able to play with the interface for imovie08.

Give me a day or two with it and I'll tell you whether I like it or not.

AB