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N8vvood
lvl.1

United States
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Hey Everyone,

I am new to DJI cameras and filmmaking in general. Looking to get some perspective on a good laptop to purchase and editing program for my Osmo Pro footage. Does anyone have any opinions on the subject?

Currently looking at a MacBook Pro and Final Cut Pro X combo, but wanted to consult the experts first.

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks.
2016-11-29
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Camera Ninja
lvl.3
United States
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As long as you can view and edit your footage, it doesn't really matter what system you use. I'm editing on Premiere Pro on an iMac with an i7 processor and
32gb ram. I'm actually in process of learning FCPX, to its credit, it seems to playback and export footage faster, but I'm still not a fan. Every time I sit down for a training session, I discover something new I hate about it. This weeks issue: audio syncing and remapping.
2016-11-29
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Ocean of Stars
lvl.1

United States
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Thanks Camera Ninja, do you find that FCPX may be overwhelming for someone who is just starting off? I heard Premiere Pro is a great program as well. Have you found that FCPX has more features/versatility than Premiere Pro, in addition to playback and exporting footage faster?

Apologies for a million questions. Thanks again!
2016-11-29
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LenMiddx
Second Officer
United Kingdom
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I've been using FCP for a couple of years (first FCP 7 and then FCP X). I've used it with iMacs, so can't comment on the MacBook Pro.

FCP X is fine for a beginner. It has a lot of features -- but you don't need to use them initially. As you get more experience, and want to do more sophisticated things, you'll find that there are features in FCPX that will allow you to do them.

For a beginner, its very simple to use as it uses a 'magnetic' time-line. It's as simple as pulling the clips onto the time-line in the order that you want them, move them around into the final, correct sequence, trim the beginnings and ends of the clips, add a title ..... and there's your first movie.

In addition to FCP X, you would also need to get Compressor to generate the final movie.

The Osmo can record in 4K -- so if you plan on editing in 4k, you need to ensure that any hardware you get is sufficiently powerful to handle it.

2016-11-29
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Camera Ninja
lvl.3
United States
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LenMiddx, I came from the FCP 7 world and still use for my day job in video compression. FCPX was so radically different and initially didn't offer any of the tools that previous version had such as professional codecs, multichannel audio editing, and multi camera editing. So lots of editors migrated over to Premiere. I like Premiere because it works just like FCP 7 and most other NLE out there. In fact, you can map the keyboard to match FCP 7 or AVID.
Premiere also integrates well with other Adobe products like After Effects and Photoshop.

That being said, If you don't have any other NLE experience, you shouldn't have a problem learning FCPX. It does have some nice prebuilt graphics and effects and like I mentioned earlier, it is actually faster at encoding than Premiere. That's one of the reasons I need to learn it. I'm seeing a lot of post-houses turning to FCPX so when in Rome...
The other thing FCPX has got for it is that it's a one time purchase while Premiere is a cloud based subscription program. The post-house I work at doesn't want to use Premiere due to security so the powers that be are looking to go to FCPX.
2016-11-29
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Camera Ninja
lvl.3
United States
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And yes, I must post this link:

https://youtu.be/LxKYuF9pENQ
2016-11-29
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cderrington
lvl.1
Flight distance : 621798 ft
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United States
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To steal N8vvood's thunder, what about for us Windows users?  Can someone recommend a beginner and advanced video editing programs?  
2016-11-29
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Camera Ninja
lvl.3
United States
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Premiere is available on Mac and PC.
2016-11-29
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LenMiddx
Second Officer
United Kingdom
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@CN: yes, FCP X was a radical change from the earlier FCP 7. In fact, it was  a completely different program.

In the first release it had a number of essential featuress missing, but Apple have been issuing a major release (or two) every year for the past 5 years, so any criticisms on that score are long gone.

Like a lot of people I waited for a year or so after it was released, waited as updates were issued, monitored reviews from the professionals -- and then switched over.

As you say, FCP X is not part of a subscription service -- and every update so far (over 5 years) has been free.

Importantly, major organizations like the BBC have have been adopting FCP X as a standard (for its news teams) -- a clear sign on how well the product has progressed.
2016-11-29
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Camera Ninja
lvl.3
United States
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The other NLE that looks pretty interesting is DaVinci Resolve. Main reason it's free. Can't beat that. I tried it a while back, it seemed a little slow, but perhaps they worked the bugs out of the earlier version.

It's primarily used for color grading, but if you're on a budget and can't afford FCP, Premiere, or AVID, it's not a bad way to go.
2016-11-29
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mengteck71
lvl.4
Singapore
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LenMiddx Posted at 2016-11-30 07:54
@CN: yes, FCP X was a radical change from the earlier FCP 7. In fact, it was  a completely different ...

If I purchase and download onto my iMac, am I able to also download onto my MacBook Pro?  Do I need separate purchase for different computer? The software is not cheap though.
2016-11-29
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LenMiddx
Second Officer
United Kingdom
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mengteck71 Posted at 2016-11-30 05:58
If I purchase and download onto my iMac, am I able to also download onto my MacBook Pro?  Do I nee ...

That's something that you'd need to ask Apple, I'm afraid. I would have thought so, but then again it's not something that I've done.

According to Apple's website, a license for a purchased copy allows you:

"...to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X ("Mac Computer") that you own or control..."

So it seems that the purchase of one copy will be enough to cover any Apple that you control

--------------------------------------------------------

The software isn't cheap, as you say -- but it is a fraction of the cost that FCP 7 and it's associated programs would have cost you when it was the current version.

FCP X is very cheap in comparison.

2016-11-30
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mengteck71
lvl.4
Singapore
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LenMiddx Posted at 2016-11-30 02:55
I've been using FCP for a couple of years (first FCP 7 and then FCP X). I've used it with iMacs, so  ...

HI LenMiddx, why is there a need to Compressor if editing in FCP X? Compressor merely compress it into smaller file size?
2016-11-30
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Ocean of Stars
lvl.1

United States
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Thanks for the feedback everyone! Really helpful.

2016-11-30
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LenMiddx
Second Officer
United Kingdom
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mengteck71 Posted at 2016-11-30 13:58
HI LenMiddx, why is there a need to Compressor if editing in FCP X? Compressor merely compress it  ...

Compressor is used to provide the deliverable version of your movie.

It is a very comprehensive and flexible conversion program -- convert to a wide range of formats, sizes, fps, add time-code, watermark, etc.

I normally 'Share --> master file' in FCP X, and take that into Compressor to generate the final version.
2016-12-1
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powerlord_stu.h
lvl.1
Flight distance : 515105 ft
United Kingdom
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Compressor is not required. Fcpx will share in lots of formats without requiring compressor. If you need something it doesn't do there are free alternatives, like handbrake.

It will also upload directly in correct format you YouTube, etc out the box.



Saying that, its cheap so if you need to  esoteric formats like blue ray, mpeg2, etc then it's a decent purchase but for the regular professional it's mostly an optional thing. For the amateur, it's pretty much not required at all.

Premiere is definitely not for beginners imho.

But if you buy a Mac, you'll have iMovie free. Play with that for a while...it's pretty powerful. When you outgrow it, upgrade to fcpx ? Fcpx will import iMovie projects too so you won't have to redo stuff from scratch to work on old projects in fcpx.
2016-12-3
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mengteck71
lvl.4
Singapore
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powerlord_stu.h Posted at 2016-12-4 10:21
Compressor is not required. Fcpx will share in lots of formats without requiring compressor. If you  ...

Thanks for the advice.  Guess I will work with iMovie for time being.  Cheers.
2016-12-4
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