IMac for documentary editing

[dhassan]

Im working on a documentary about 30 minutes (no more than 45 minutes in length). I plan on using stock footage as well as footage that I've filmed. I'm looking to switch over to Mac and want to buy the new IMac 24inch. I was wondering if it is powerful enough to use Final Cut Express (which I plan on using) unless that is not good enough? Limited budget is making me look at the IMac over the Mac Pro more than anything else. My question is; is an IMac powerful enough to edit my documentary and is final cut express powerful enough to have the professional look in editing that im looking for. Also is the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory a good enough video card or should I upgrade.

Thanks to all

 

[iKwick7]

Good enough. Most important thing for you would be the ram- I would recommend going with 3 gigs.

 

[jbg232]

You should buy 2 x 2gb ram modules from crucial to make a total of 4gb. It is about a $150 upgrade package on www.crucial.com, but more than necessary for video work. You can try and sell the 1gb module that you take out of the computer on ebay to make up some of the money (but you likely won't get very much for it).

 

[zioxide]

What format did you shoot/what format are you editing?

 

[palmerized]

OMG Yes. I shot with Mini DV my wedding years ago, and edited it with Final Cut Pro (version 2 perhaps), and it ran fine on my PowerBook 1.3GHz. I'd go for atleast 2GB of RAM and a massive hard drive. You can pick up a good 7200rpm external drive (around 500GB) for about a hundred bucks. This setup would kick-ass.

Enjoy - I'm sure this will be a pleasant experience.

 

[dredmorbius]

The hardware will be plenty for what you want to do. As for the software giving it a professional look, no software can really do that. It all depends on the editor. I've seen some pretty awful edits come from high end systems and some award winning docs cut on really cheap systems. The end product will be a result of how much time and effort you put in to it.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

It depends...

... mostly on the format. You didn't say anything about it. Unless you do - no answer can be given. Well - not completely true. It depends as well if you want to do an offline/online.

 

[dhassan]

IMac for documentary Editing

Thanks to all who responded your replies were of great help. The camera Im using is the Panasonic AG DVX 100. Here is a link for anyone interested in looking at it.

http://www.broadcaststore.com/store/model_detail.cfm?id=797149

I am not filming in HD. I am using dv tapes which I hope to transfer onto the IMac or an external Hard Drive.

One more question. Is the imac coming out in a black color. I've done some research and saw that there were rumors to that extent.

Thanks again to all for all of your advice.