General Mac hardware discussions forum: which mac for starting a video editing career?

Battle has provided an EXCELLENT overview of the current product line and features....all very sound advice. I do NOT disagree with anything he stated.
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Now to play devils advocate..........as a Mac User, business owner and (most important) TV producer...I am going to offer you a slightly different perspective.
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As a new self-admitting entry into the world of pro video editing...it will take some time to develop your skills to the point that you are deriving significant income off of your projects. Your skills will take time to develop and it will take significant time to find people willing to hire you on a regular basis. (EST 1-3 years for most people seeking to derive significant income from the venture. Significant = Greater than $20k a year.)

TIME being the critical factor...and budget also seeming to be an issue....Remember that as you start out...having the latest/greatest does you no good if you don't have knowledge/skills/experience on the software to leverage the full power of the software/machine. Not an insult...just pointing out that you have a LOT of ground to cover as a newbie into this field. WIthout classes or intensive training/internship with practical application workflow every day...it may take you a year or two to develop FCP skills to the point that you are an efficient editor/producer.

That stated...save your money now. Buy the least expensive dual processor (core duo) machine you can find....max it to 3 or 4 GB of RAM...and get a good external USB 2.0 drive for (video data.) Keep your firewire port open for hooking a DV camera to it...or a biDirectional DV Firewire converter box for Monitoring your edit on a TUBE Monitor/TV. Buy a decent Camera...some wireless mics and a few lights...depending on your intended subject matter.

POINT BEING: By the time you really need a machine with some OOMPH...you should have developed your skills to the point that you actually DO need the horsepower....and at that point...you SHOULD have the client base established to be able to afford a QUAD or 8 Processor MACPRO.

Our interns begin their work on a FCP equipped Core Duo Mac Mini. (Dual 1.8 with 3GB ram) FYI--That was a Sub-$750 purchase for us when we got it. The interns stay on that machine for roughly 3-6 months of intensive training...until they have mastered most of the basics of FCP editing. They then continue to use it for their introductory After Effects training. Yes...it is slow(er)...but even these low end machines today run circles around the top end machines from just a few years ago.

Good Luck.

For what it's worth: Having started out on things like six plate flatbed and Moviola upright film editors (yes, using TAPE to fix pieces of film together,) in today's market, to BE marketable, as well as to pay your dues learning the craft, where $4,000 a week happens for many an editor, I'd suggest canceling the expense of youthful exuberance and save until you can afford a Mac Pro and Final Cut Studio, with AT LEAST one 23" monitor. All of this will cost less than a lens for an HD camera. By far.

With the Mac Pro, you get the nice video cards, and for editing, there is a new class of effects and transition technology which use the high speed capabilities of video cards for real time (live) capability. It's a brave new world, and very, very, cool.

As to video I/O hardware, consider for starters, Black Magic Design's Intensity product. It is cheap. With this, you can capture full 1080x1920 video to Apple's Pro Res via HDMI to an inexpensive Firewire 800 drive (do NOT bother with USB or Firewire 400 if you want to be thinking HD,) and suddenly, with consumer cameras, you have the ability to do a show, better than film students with 16mm film. The bit of it: you have to carry your Mac to each location to digitize. But you're young. Regular HDMI cables are okay to about 25 feet. HDMI extenders from Gefen would help with keeping you in a room or truck. The Intensity board will also let you attach a cheap 1080x1920 monitor (well, TV, as Sony's Pro 23 inch LCD is more than $20,000,) like the backlit DLP's from Samsung, where 50+ inches of 1080 are under $1,000. Use the CINEMA mode for editing, as it seems the most accurate.

Did I mention that with the Intensity card, you can LIVE SWITCH TWO HD CAMERAS and capture to Pro Res? You just hafta have TWO Intensity cards.

Finally, associate yourself with independent filmmakers as their post solution, and toil away until you get good.

The other way to do this is to try to get an assistant editor job somewhere, but the desktop has killed a lot of assistant jobs.

Best of Luck

Richard Brown

if you want to work at home / SOHO.... the iMac 27 with I7 processor is perfect, but looking to work all the day (and continuing at night ) just go for the Mac Pro with at least 6 cores and 32 GB of ECC RAM, they are worth.

A serious MAC user from Mauritius