Video Editing and After Effects work

[ghoraa]

Hi guys,

I know Im asking the following question on a dedicated Mac forum, but this issue has been bugging me for quite a while.
Basically, I will soon graduate and aim to work as a freelance videographer. I aim to purchase FCPX, will work either on that or Premiere and will do quite a lot of heavy After Effects work.

I am looking at buying the new 27" Imac (i7, 1gb Graphics, 8gb of ram with an intention to add more later)
However I am on a budget and as you all know the imac is quite pricey, which leads me to my question.

I could buy a DELL PC with more powerful specs for the same price, maybe even cheaper.

I love macs, my main reason for having a mac is stability, it never crashes, does not have viruses, slick and easy to use, with no "postmortum debugger" types of errors.

What I would like to find out is:

Will an expensive PC (at about £1800), eventually slow down like all PC's do, will it be laggy like most of the PC's in my experience, will it be slower and less stable than the 27" Imac, will it overheat etc and actually perform worse that the Imac? Will it fail to find drivers for SD card readers and FireWire HDrives?


Basically, with the years that have passed, are PC's still as clunky, slow and impossible to work with? Even the expensive ones?

This will be a costly investment for me and I just want to make a right choice.

Thanks

 

[Adams Apple]

The problem with PCs is that your experience will vary greatly. The good thing about the Apple ecosystem is that the experience is more predictable and tends to be more stable for most users.

In GENERAL I would say the following to be the case:

With a PC:

-You could probably get better speed performance for 1/2 the price, if you do your homework and know what you are doing. You have to research each component before you buy

-A PC tower will be likely able to grow with your needs more than an All-in-One iMac

-It will likely be less stable and require more troubleshooting & maintenance, etc.

By the way, if you are just getting started building a new system I would try to be future forward and think about investing in eSata or USB 3.0 (if/when available) external storage systems as FW800 is on its way out and considerably slower.

The bottom line is YES you can buy a PC that could be as fast for faster for less $$$. It will probably require more work and upkeep however, and you'll be staying up late some nights tooling under the hood and removing viruses, etc. All the many reasons mac users tend to stay away from PCs. It is something to consider if you want to stay within a budget.

I am a professional editor and have worked on both PC and Mac platforms. I am also awaiting delivery of my new 27" iMac

-Adams Apple

 

[Adams Apple]

Hi guys,

Basically, I will soon graduate and aim to work as a freelance videographer. I aim to purchase FCPX, will work either on that or Premiere and will do quite a lot of heavy After Effects work.

Another thing I forgot to mention is you have to take into consideration what your plans are as a "freelance videographer". Will you always be working alone on your own projects, or will there be times you are collaborating with others?

If you need to send project files or share projects with people on Macs and you're on the PC, you will have a problem if they are working on FCPX (not so common yet, but professional use may grow over the years) or FCP7 (very widespread). So, if you buy an Apple, remember you could use FCP7, FCPX, Premiere Pro, and Avid MC, but if you're on a PC you'll be confined to Premiere Pro and Avid (as far as the big editing platforms go).

 

[phoenixsan]

Well....

to me, in the last times, PCs are getting new improvements in hardware in less time than Apple equivalents. Apple is pricey, and yes, you have a point seeing you can buy a more powerful machine than an Apple one, for the same price, and even cheaper. Almost the dilemma of the Hackintosh: You can build some that blowns out any thing Apple mades and you will build it cheaper and to your likings. But you dont get, almost surely, the seamless integration between hardware and software....

Buggy, viruses, malware, hackers.....Windows

Not so buggy, no too many viruses and go on....Mac

Very important: Your experience/liking in the two environments. I will go in the route I have more experience/feel more at ease. And going PC: Good luck finding decent FireWire support....

 

[Tri-stan]

They are still clunky and the os is still a pain to work with so you got thay right. What I have picked up from recent times is that all focus is now off development of the desktop pc and all new industrial design is being focused on laptops and portable devices. My workstation as listed below you pay iMac money for and you get a big clunky setup and the tiresome ui of windows. I just think to myself okay I have upgradability here and better graphics capabilities but it is just not fun to use outside of your programs.

My new iMac is going to get me through my masters course but I will still need to get a cheap portable laptop which I will use with windows anyhow. All I know is that once I am through with my masters course and I sell all of my supporting junk I know I will be left with my iMac. It will be resigned as the workhorse it once was but will be a ceterpiece to my home life. That is what makes iMac's so great.

I think the level of work you are doing now an iMac will be a great soloution, and lets be clear about this an aesthetic soloution as well. You know a Windows machine with the upgradability options is the better work choice but your not working in an office right, otherwise you would get the windows machine or mac pro.

The iMac is a consumer machine in the end of the day so if you think you are going to be doing heavy professional production in the future and you want the expandability then windows is the better bet for you. If not then the iMac will suit for your needs. I just couldn't bare to live with my workstation day to day. It just doesn't give you that personal experience that you get from these new phones, laptops and other new wave devices comming to market. The iMac in my opinion goes some way to filling that gap between crappy pc's and all of that jazz.

 

[thekev]

I love macs, my main reason for having a mac is stability, it never crashes, does not have viruses, slick and easy to use, with no "postmortum debugger" types of errors.

I haven't spent any time with Windows 8. Windows 7 is solid in spite of minor problems. OSX is not problem free either. Viruses are not terribly difficult to avoid. If you're getting kernel panics in Windows or OSX, they're usually hardware problems. These can occur on either side and are reasonably common with poorly researched user upgrades. I wouldn't personally bother with FCPX. If you're in school why wouldn't you buy something like this considering the price of After Effects alone? I'm pretty sure they allow later upgrades from educational bundles, and they don't carry restrictions on commercial use. I don't have anything against the imac. Just don't fool yourself into believing that OSX is the magic solution to all of your problems. It has problems of its own, especially since Lion.

 

[Tri-stan]

considering the price of After Effects alone?

Yeah once your out of uni legitimate programs are a must. To be honest while at uni software manufactures should be giving out free education serials per semester given that all the students end up working for firms and with that bringing their favorite app experience and knowledge.

 

[thekev]

Yeah once your out of uni legitimate programs are a must. To be honest while at uni software manufactures should be giving out free education serials per semester given that all the students end up working for firms and with that bringing their favorite app experience and knowledge.

Autodesk does the free while a student thing. Adobe lacks the restrictions on use. My point was if he needed anything beyond after effects other than Premiere from Adobe, it's likely that it makes more sense to go with creative suite as you can avoid the higher upfront costs while you're a student. FCPX is only $300, but the OP should ensure he's not passing up any discounted software he requires while he retains eligibility. It used to be that individual programs had different upgrade policies where you could upgrade up to 3 versions back and avoid bothering with weak software releases. That is no longer the case. If you're stuck with upgrade costs either way, I would buy in at the lower rate, although I'd first check that student CS6 could later go to commercial CS6.5 or 7.

 

[crows]

Apple charges a premium for packing practically the same components you could get anywhere into a aluminium shell with a glass screen and of course for the OS and other stuff. I can honestly say that I bought an iMac and was pleased with the quality of the product except the screen which I took in to get repaired because of a yellow tint issue, but that issue aside the package is well built and performs as expected. Is it overpriced? sure is but I have to admit that you don't find other manufacturers using these materials in their construction.

In my opinion, if you will use it to make money don't worry too much about the initial investment as it will pay off when you get your jobs and get paid for them. The real issue here is how easy you can upgrade your hardware down the road, and to you I strongly suggest to hold out and see if Apple releases the Mac Pro on June and buy that instead, it will cost even more but you get a little peace of mind that you have a lot more upgrade options.

 

[joeysarks]

I got a Mac about 2 years ago, and now I even have trouble getting on my friends PCs. They have aggravated me so much in the past 15 years. My Apple experience so far has been flawless, and even if a problem were to a rise I wouldn't be so hostile like with a PC, cuz the user experience is so satisfactory. I get that you can get more bang for your buck sometimes on PC, but it ain't that much more bang at the high end, it eventually starts having issues, and no OSX/FCPX/or other Apple perks.

And I had this same problem, was debating on a maxed 21.5 or a buffed up 27 for video editing. In the end I just snagged a refurb baseline rMBP for under 2k and couldn't be happier so far. No issues (I assume they tested the hell outta the rMBP line for IR, etc) I've seriously thrown everything I can at this machine and it screams like people say. A bit slow on the 3D stuff in Motion 5 but that's about it. And I get the portability for on the road video jobs as well

 

[ghoraa]

Thanks for the informative replies guys.

I've decided to go with an Imac.
And then as my production evolves, get a PC only for Adobe usage. But an Imac should do for now.

I have an educational CS5.5 suite, will look at how much the uprgade costs.

Thanks again for the replies,

George

 

[tears2040]

Thanks for the informative replies guys.

I've decided to go with an Imac.
And then as my production evolves, get a PC only for Adobe usage. But an Imac should do for now.

I have an educational CS5.5 suite, will look at how much the uprgade costs.

Thanks again for the replies,

George

Adobe products work on Mac very well, so no real advantage for jumping ship towards After Effects.

As a matter of fact Most things that can be done in After Effects are being implemented now for Final Cut X and Apple Motion.

Personally Final Cut X is faster than After Effects when doing simple things like cloning and cutting things out of scenes. I witnessed this first hand yesterday and was amazed. I used FCP professionally for a bout 3 years and will be making the jump to Final Cut X real soon.