Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Will an iMac cut it.

J

james Mallon

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
49
Reaction score
0
Points
0
No pun intended.

I was looking at the price of a mac pro and it just seems a bit steep with a good screen potentially a lot more than I will pay for the camera. So I was wondering if a decent speced iMac can edit Red footage effectively. I would appreciate any real world experiences editing red one 3k on an iMac. Would you have to wait days for things to render etc, whats is it really like to use?

I also heard the iMAC will soon be updated and wonder how this will change things. I think this question is higly relevent to new cost concious Scarlet users who will be wanting to use FCS but don't want to buy a new Mac Pro. And anyway the iMac looks so cool....
 
ive got an imac and i downloaded some 3k footage from the red server (that i forgot it's name... someone remind me) and it handled it very well.

now, I bet I'm missing a step, but 3k works just fine on my iMac.
 
I just personally bought gear for my kids, a MacBook Pro 17", MacBook 13", and Macbook Air I'll test it on all those as well. I am sure it a imac would load it fine.

But you may want to use CLIPFINDER to view your footage in a variety of ways and formats from the metadata (1/8, 1/4 , 1/2, Full) .

I suggest you select the scene you want and try it out.. but select a range of the scene you want to render before you check off the "GOOD"column to specifically render what you need. (for a slower machine like my Macbook Pro - even running two cores can humble one's patience)

http://www.callboxlive.com/resources/?p=148 (This does work with MacOSx 10.5)
 
Using the iMac limits you to a FW800 drive for storage, unless you have a Gig-E networked setup. This may lead to some limitations when you transcode footage, although it should handle ProRes at HD resolutions with a decent RAIDed drive, like the G-Raid. Otherwise, the iMac is a nice machine for RED.
 
This is the same question i had. I'm about to buy a new Mac and am volleying back and forth between a Middle-end Pro or a decked out iMac

Hearing that people edit RED footage on a macbook pro is encouraging. more input would be greatly appreciated!
:)
 
Rick Presas said:
This is the same question i had. I'm about to buy a new Mac and am volleying back and forth between a Middle-end Pro or a decked out iMac

Hearing that people edit RED footage on a macbook pro is encouraging. more input would be greatly appreciated!
:)
Click to expand...

I have a bag for my 24" iMac so I can take it on location.
Add some G-raids FW800 and you are good to go.
 
I cut on my iMac and have just introduced a new fully spec'd Mac Pro into the flow. Did a render test of the exact same project. iMac 37 minutes, new Mac Pro 5 minutes. iMac works, but the raw horsepower of a Mac Pro is quite a jump up.
 
perfect. exactly the info i needed. thanks Shane!

*edit*
Just to clarify, could you give us the specs of each of the two?
 
The Mac Pro is 8 core, 2.93 processors, 16GB RAM, ATI Radeon card. The iMac is about 9 months old, 2.93 processor, 4GB RAM. Any more specs you need? The Mac Pro is only a few weeks old. Still putting it through its paces and getting ready to cut and color a larger Red project on it. Also have a MacBook Pro (15") for on set offloading. 3.06 processor, 4GB Ram. I am finding that my iMac is running about the same in terms of performance to the MacBook Pro. Haven't done any side by sides with the MacBook Pro yet.
 
You might run into trouble come rendering time. An iMac isn't that much faster than my current MacBook Pro, and it takes me around 20 hours to render 1.5 hours of footage of just 1080p source material. I can't imagine trying to render anything from a Red on it.
 
You can't use anything above Firewire 800 for Drive speed, So... no an Imac WILL NOT cut it. You need to at least use an e-sata RAID, or your Internal Disks. Which when Bigger projects come up you'll be spending more money on more Slow FW800 Drives, And then be forced to upgrade to that MacPro you should have gotten the first time when you need a E-sata RAID. And believe me you can get a 5 TB E-sata RAID for around $700-1000.
 
Last edited:
Michael Schrengohst said:
I have a bag for my 24" iMac so I can take it on location.
Add some G-raids FW800 and you are good to go.
Click to expand...

Hey Michael,

Can you tell me more about your bag or case for getting your 24" iMac to location? I'm still using the box it came in.

BTW, I love my iMac for use on the set. But I'm not a serious editing person, so I can't really speak to that. Edits fine for the "little stuff" I do myself.
 
I've been carrying around my 24 inch iMac for 2 years in an iLugger case:

http://www.ilugger.com/

Cheap, well designed and in and out of the gear van, no damage to the iMac whatsoever. It's a little unwieldy to throw a 24 inch computer over the shoulder but it has a shoulder strap. Sometimes it's easier to use the carry handle and arms length though.

Oh, the iLugger also has a pocket for keyboard, mouse and power cables.
 
You don't need EFi-x to run OSX on a PC. I'm running vanilla on a i7 myself. Instead I made an EFi partition.
 
jimarri said:
Hey Michael,

Can you tell me more about your bag or case for getting your 24" iMac to location? I'm still using the box it came in.

BTW, I love my iMac for use on the set. But I'm not a serious editing person, so I can't really speak to that. Edits fine for the "little stuff" I do myself.
Click to expand...

Yes this was it.

http://www.ilugger.com/
 
New iMac

New iMac

Would anyone be willing to speculate what a likely iMac update might involve and how/will it might make the iMac a more viable option. I don't know much about Mac's but I had heard the iMac wasn't able to utilise some of the more recent processing power advances due to hardware limitations but that was to change with the introduction of leopard O.S ????
 
Well once september roles around you'll probably find the iMac fine. Snow Leopard is on its way in then and this should take away great limitations in terms of processing as final cut studio turns into a 64 bit power editing house...really if people can edit on their little macbook pro's right now, they'll find it even better in september on an iMac.

HOWEVER.
RAM.RAM.RAM. I'm pretty sure thats the biggest limitation and thats why many would chose a mac pro if they could over an iMac especially with processing. The GPU is another upside and the fact that the iMac can't hold a RED Rocket unless RED cares to cater to that market segment which is un-profitable (to some extent) for them to do so.

(Might be wrong on a lot of that, but at least thats my opinion, feel free to correct me xD)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top