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  • 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 :)

You must choose a Mac immediately

Mark Phelan

Mark Phelan

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Here's my dilemma, I am about to have a camera, but don't have an Intel Mac yet. I've been waiting to see what might develop, but nothing has developed just yet. Unfortunately, both my laptop and desktop are pre-Intel Macs. So I must choose which to upgrade first. So my options are:

A. Buy an iMac as a stop-gap setup. Use it as a field monitor later on.
B. Buy a laptop for the portability and not worry about what is coming around the corner.
C. Buy a desktop for the speed and not worry about what is sure to be faster and cheaper next week.

What would you do for a "right now" solution? It has to be Mac only.
 
Tough one...

A lot of depends on your schedule. If you plan to go into hiding a few months to test the camera, you may be better with an iMac or MacBook now, and get a production machine when you need it. This will also let you better understand the workflow and real world scenarios before deciding on a final spec.

But if you are jumping into a production soon, you're better off with the grunt.

Not much help, I know, but my 2¢.

Jim
 
Mark,

You may want to take a closer look at the post developments before committing to a MAC.. But then if you can boot Windows on it, I guess it makes no difference

Jay
 
Hmmm....

I'm going to agree with Blair. Get the Macbook Pro now so you can work. You don't have to get a top of the line one either. I would recommend the 17" or the 15" if you have a larger monitor to connect it to. You don't have to buy the fastest CPU, but step down a notch to save you a few bucks. Put that money towards an eSATA interface card and an external RAID. Overall cheaper than a tower, but more portable. Gives you the ability to have an on-set or in-field offloading system as well as a workstation. Buy your RAM elsewhere and save a bundle. Put at least 2GB in there, 4GB is better. With the laptop, power is going to be lacking no matter what, but IMO a good laptop is an essential part of any good RED kit.

Add a nice new Mac Pro tower system to your kit later this year or early next year after they get upgraded again. I smell new video options coming soon. I also have a hunch that Apple is going to get exclusive access to one of the top models of Intel's next CPUs like they did with the 3GHz Xeon a while back. Intel is still on track to release their next generation of CPUs in about 45 days, that places new systems from most large vendors to be released sometime mid-late October or so. But no one knows for sure.

Why do you have to go with a Mac solution? Granted, it's still the best officially supported platform, but that's going to change in the next few weeks with the Adobe plug-in. Cineform has their conversion tool to take R3D files and convert to Cineform 4:4:4. I think we'll be seeing a lot of other such tools soon here as well due to the SDK.
 
Mark Phelan said:
Here's my dilemma, I am about to have a camera, but don't have an Intel Mac yet. I've been waiting to see what might develop, but nothing has developed just yet. Unfortunately, both my laptop and desktop are pre-Intel Macs. So I must choose which to upgrade first. So my options are:

A. Buy an iMac as a stop-gap setup. Use it as a field monitor later on.
B. Buy a laptop for the portability and not worry about what is coming around the corner.
C. Buy a desktop for the speed and not worry about what is sure to be faster and cheaper next week.

What would you do for a "right now" solution? It has to be Mac only.
Click to expand...

I would wait - very cool stuff coming so VERY, VERY soon in the world of MAC laptops - can you make it until September 23rd?
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Why do you have to go with a Mac solution? Granted, it's still the best officially supported platform, but that's going to change in the next few weeks with the Adobe plug-in. .
Click to expand...

Which will also be available for MAC.

Adobe on the MAC is the right place to place all bets.
 
Offhollywood said:
I would wait - very cool stuff coming so VERY, VERY soon in the world of MAC laptops - can you make it until September 23rd?
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. See that is what I've been waiting for in the first place. I knew there was going to be something BIG announced soon, so that is why I want to hold off as long as possible. You bet I can wait until then.
 
Mark - always dropping interesting yet vague bits of info. Also, as a long long long time Mac fanatic, it's "Mac" not "MAC", just in case you care.
 
If you really need an interim computer I actually think the highest end iMac with 4 gig of ram is a pretty good solution. It gives you more horsepower and graphics for the buck than the laptops, and yet still can be somewhat portable. The only down side is that there is no eSata ability.
But that way you can save your coin for what Mark is alluding to.

Greg
 
The way I look at it is that computers are tools. If you can't do your job without a hammer, then buy a hammer. Sure there will be better hammers next week, next month, or September 23rd (?!). How much is it worth to your business to be driving nails between now and then?

I bit the bullet and bought a MacBook Pro when I couldn't afford it and wasn't sure if the time was right, but needed it for work. I have paid it off more than double in rental fees on set. It's a really nice hammer!
 
when you really need to get it to get the job done buy the biggest and best you can afford now.

personally I would buy the laptop, the one in the CAPITAL letters, (hehheh)
in september so you can use it on set for a good long time. then when mac
pros update...bingo!!!!
 
get the laptop now, and a 16 core mac pro later. Do this, because Intel is going to release the new nahelm processors this fall, with 40% more power, and double the cores per cpu. the difference might now be so great for the laptops. Besides, laptops can be used on set.
 
My only mac is an imac. Never used one before, but it great for importing footage and exporting 16bit TIFFs, which I transfer onto usb drives. I'll probably use cheaper PCs and laptops (when outside, for offloading CF cards) to edit with most of the time, and intend to keep the mac "clean" of junk files and apps.
I got shake with the machine, and got 4gig of ram and the slower, but possibly more reliable, ATI 256mb gfx card. I chose the 24" so I could view footage at bluray resolution+. Highly recommend them for the money, especially if you need a high res screen. Keeping the foam screen cover it was delivered in allows me to pick it up and chuck it in a car without scratching the screen.
Whilst the mac book pros are better in some ways (but not all), for the money, I prefer the imac. I may get a mbp next time, when they have octo-core processors.

edit, Its worth also mentioning that you can process different R3D files on different machines, so eight imacs would effectively have 1066mhz fsb x 8 = 8000+mhz fsb. same math for disk reads and writes, cpu/CACHE and memory. A cluster would be nice (and can consist of any mac/pc), and cheaper than a "pimped" Mac Pro, with the only downside being energy consumption (but you could have the screens disabled during processing via power saving), and things would process quicker anyway..
 
The current Mac pro is using the 45nm 4 core Xeons, same fab process as the upcoming consumer Nehalems. A stripped down model with a single quad core and equipped to the same level as a completely maxed out Macbook Pro dual core costs about the same, but has tremendous upgrade potential as well as much better performance out of the box. I've always been a fan of workstations over laptops for any kind of serious graphics work.
 
Laptop 'cause it works great and you can always use it later... Actually, you most def. will use it later! My MBP is roughly 2 years old and I use it daily to cut scenes as the film's in production. Every 2 or 3 days, back in the office, I update the project in my Mac Pro. No matter what, the edit-flow, other than it being a little slow w/respect to "responsiveness" (I'm working with the 2K Ref. QT's) is solid. For whatever reason - and I'm guessing that it's being mobile and not stuck in an edit suite everyday - I actually feel better on my MBP.
 
All great comments, thanks, keep them coming.

I've used a two computer setup for years, the laptop is my mainstay, always travels with me and I use a large screen hooked up to it when I'm back in the office. The desktop is my "clean" production computer that only contains applications and files pertaining to Final Cut Studio, ProTools, etc.

I still plan on working this way, it is just good or bad that my computers have lasted so long and that I'm forced into the Intel. Not complaining at all, just trying to time it as prudently as possible. After having owned countless computers over the past twenty plus years, I understand the frustration of buying one day only to find a better version the next. I also learned long ago not to buy something until you need it, thus my wait.

Keep the good ideas flowing, they're very appreciated.
 
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