T2i and FCP
 

I am looking at moving into HD and was curious about buying the T2i and if it would work in FCP 5.1.4?

Thanks,
Matthew Fowler

Probably not. You need to transcode to ProRes for decent editing in FCP & that CODEC didn't appear until FCP 6.

Take a look at Premiere Pro CS5. Plays real time with the native files.

I assume that if your copy of FCP is 5.1.4 that it's a pretty old Mac that you are running it on.

Maybe if you don't have anything too complex in terms of effects, transitions & numbers of tracks & your system is powerful enough. There is no NLE that is really happy with the native H.264 MPEG4 files form the 550D/7D/5DII. Edius/VegasAvid/iMove/CS5/FCP will all edit & playback native footage if the system is fast enough but for smooth editing you will want to transcode to a more edit-friendly CODEC

Transcode to ProRes and you'll be fine.

i have a mac G5 running dual 2.3 ghz with 3 gb of ram.

Do you think that is enough?

I'm currently running Final Cut Studio 2 (FCP 6.0.5) beautifully on a 2 ghz Dual G5 Powermac.

I'm transcoding my T2i footage to ProRes using MPEG Streamclip.

I wish my video card however, had more than 64megs of RAM, as I cannot run Apple Color or Magic Bullet Quick Looks.

If the older version of FCP doesn't support ProRes, you can use MPEG Streamclip to transcode to AIC instead. There won't be a huge difference in quality but it won't hold up as well to lots of colour correction.

MacMini
 

You can get the latest MacMini, and run the latest version of Final Cut Studio just fine. I have an older MacBook Pro Intel Core 2, and make both standard DVD and Blu Ray discs no problem. Also crank out QuickTime for the web as well.

I worked for Apple for almost 15 years - trust me, you need to be on the Mac "Intel" platform with any new non-tape based technology.

G5s in the dual 2 ghz are still going on ebay for about $300, after that, you have the latest mini for $400.
I know some very well known people in the video industry who do most of there day to day editing on a mini with various attached storage solutions. The mini has its own dedicated video card, and only shares memory with the rest of the system. Apple boosted the graphics in the new one to make the gamers happy.
If the Quake and Call of Duty and Doom players get twice the performance, you wont have any problems editing on that little thing trust me.

By the way don't expect to see Apple stay on the tower band wagon much longer. Personally I think the tower computer is close to its end of life. You wont see any new industrial designs for it. Its all about portable and compact now. Remember, they don't call themselves Apple Computer computer anymore, its Apple Inc. You can now edit 720p on your iPhone with its own version of iMovie.
Other than color grading you can get by with any Apple laptop or a tricked out mini. If you really need big go iMac 27",
heck you can get a 2TB HD and up to 16GB or ram on one of those thing now.

Sell that tower while its still worth $300.

CM

Question of MPEG Streamclip
 

I don't see an option for AIC. Is that a quicktime option or something else. I'm trying to get T2i files into FCP 4.5.

Or

Can you get the ProRes codec for these two applications?

I'm working with 60D native clips straight into the same version of FCP with no hick ups at all on a Mac Pro dual xeon.