Hey - I'm new to the game, and looking to buy software pretty soon.
I've got a MacBook Pro 2ghz, and am curious to know if anyone can tell me the pros/cons of Final Cut vs. Adobe Premiere.

One plus of Premiere, is that in the office - a couple other guys use Premiere (on a PC) - so I assume it will be easier to work on the same files, etc. Is that correct?

Or, if I got FCP - is it pretty easy to save out in a certain format that my colleagues can open and work on in Premiere?

Compression software good on both?

Any opinions, likes/dislikes are appreciated!

Dave

To run premiere on your MacBook, you'll need Apple Bootcamp (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/) (it's Windows only) and a NFTS formatted partition, plus a FTA32 partition in order to move files over to your OSX HFS+ partition if that's necessary.

AFAIK there is no cross compatible project format between Premiere Pro and FCP (FCP exports OMF but for audio only, Adobe won't support OMF - though I am version behind on both FCP and PP - is this any different on FCP 5 and PP2? I doubt it.)

If you want/need to work with your colleagues' files, then yes, getting Premiere would be MUCH easier. Automatic Duck may sometime release an FCP<->Premiere export programme, but at the moment it's all Avid <->FCP from them.

One thing for sure, having two other guys to help you learn your new editing system can't hurt!

Mike

As far as work flow, Premiere is supposed to be designed by the FCP designer, and I have heard it told that the they are very similar. I have never used FCP, so I don't know.

As far as work flow, Premiere is supposed to be designed by the FCP designer, and I have heard it told that the they are very similar. I have never used FCP, so I don't know.
Actually it's the other way arond. FCP was designed by defectors from Adobe. I use both on a regular basis, and they are indeed extremely similar.

Thanks for the replies.

Ben - why do you switch between both Premiere & FCP?
Do each have some significant features that the other doesn't?

Dylan - Adobe makes a Mac version of the Premiere, why would I need Bootcamp?

Thanks again,
Dave

Adobe makes a MAC version of Premiere? News to me. That was discontinues four or five years ago. Surely they haven't started makeing a MAC version again?

Adobe made Premiere for Macintosh circa 1998, and only for OS 8 & 9.

Premiere is dead on the Mac, and has been for a very long time :-)

I use FCP at my school, and Premiere at home, on my PC.

Thats what I thought. I knew it wasn't current on Mac. AVID ships with versions for both MAC and PC, which is mighty handy.

Dave, What gave you the idea there was a current version of Premiere for the Mac?

The last version of premiere that ran on the Mac was Premiere 6.5. which was discontinued about 4 years ago. Certainly it was the first and last version to run under OS X. Adobe no longer sells this version.

There current version is Premiere Pro 2.0 and definitely needs Bootcamp to run on an Intel Mac (it won't run on a Power PC under ANY circumstances and to be frank I've no idea how reliable it would be under bootcamp).

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs.html

You might be able to pick up second hand or remaindered copies of 6.5 somewhere but since there will be no support for them, I would want to use it in a professional environment.