I’ve just learned that my 7 year old MacBook Air probably won’t cut it for high quality footage . Woul appreciate some advice on what to look for in a new computer. Thanks .

Quite broad question to be honest though in general I'd say it depends on your budget & what you'll be using it for on regular basis. Provided you already use Apple, good options could be to upgrade either to the new MacBook Air or MacBook Pro 13" with M1 chip. Either of those will allow you to edit 4K without too much struggle.
That being said, it's a new architecture altogether so if you require virtualisation or other sw you've been using for years that hasn't yet been refactored you might want to opt for the latest available Microsoft Intel processors.

I have 15 inch MACBOOK Pro with 2.9 GHz that does well with 2.7-4k post production work.

SD_Pilot Posted at 1-12 16:48
I have 15 inch MACBOOK Pro with 2.9 GHz that does well with 2.7-4k post production work.

Ok awesome, not sure if I’ll stay with Mac or go over to windows. I suppose both have good and bad points.

What editing software are you using?  With Final Cut Pro X on older Macs it is necessary to let the files load along with the editing process.   I have similar Mac and it works just fine.  The big question is your hard drive a SSD?

Hello there DJWacko. Thank you for reaching out and for this inquiry on what is the best computer editing software our fellow DJI co pilots are using. Since this is a 3rd party editing software I how that our fellow DJI co pilots can give out what they are using to edit there work. Thank you and fly safe always.

JohnLietzke Posted at 1-12 19:47
What editing software are you using?  With Final Cut Pro X on older Macs it is necessary to let the files load along with the editing process.   I have similar Mac and it works just fine.  The big question is your hard drive a SSD?

Thanks for the information John I will have a look into it . Cheers .

DJI Stephen Posted at 1-12 20:04
Hello there DJWacko. Thank you for reaching out and for this inquiry on what is the best computer editing software our fellow DJI co pilots are using. Since this is a 3rd party editing software I how that our fellow DJI co pilots can give out what they are using to edit there work. Thank you and fly safe always.

Thanks Stephen ..

Im using an older MacBook Air 2015 model for some editing in FCPX and as long as you create proxies you can edit fine.  The difference will be time,  it will take longer to import and export,  but if you plan well you can do other things whilst those stages are happening.

DJWacko Posted at 1-12 20:09
Thanks Stephen ..

Hi there DJWacko. Thank you for the reply and you are very much welcome. Have a safe and a happy flying always. .

Best advice I can give you for editing 4k drone footage is use iPad with LumaFusion its an incredible piece of software that works great and fast with most iPads . It costs no more than $25 once off payment and is constantly updating at no charge. It’s incredibly easy to use with loads of you tube tutorials. Anyone flying drones recording in 4k should use this software.

hallmark007 Posted at 1-14 03:04
Best advice I can give you for editing 4k drone footage is use iPad with LumaFusion its an incredible piece of software that works great and fast with most iPads . It costs no more than $25 once off payment and is constantly updating at no charge. It’s incredibly easy to use with loads of you tube tutorials. Anyone flying drones recording in 4k should use this software.

Thanks f o r the information,  that sounds perfect. Definitely giving this a try.

im going to give the new mac computers a few months to a year to go down in price and then i'll spring for a new macmini to replace my current macmini 2018 running davinci resolve and handling 4k.  the M1 should be more than up to the task.