I was faced by this same dilemma. If you can spend the money, I suggest you go for the G5, no less than a 2.0 GHz dual processor, in my opinion. As Christopher said above, when you get into video editing, if you enjoy it, you soon often want to do more than just what iMovie can do, although even current versions of iMovie require high-end Macs. To create really professional looking videos, sooner or later you may want to move up from iMovie to Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro, and these programs take computing power beyond your G4. I had to give up my 1 GHz DP G4 in order to run Final Cut Pro, and buy a G5. The G4 would run Final Cut Express, the "light" version of Pro, but I got to the point where I wanted the extra features of Pro, not to mention Motion and other helper programs that work with Final Cut Pro to create spectacular titles and special effects.
Of course, not knowing you, I cannot say that iMovie would not fulfill all your video-making ambitions, and you can run iMovie v.4, 5, or 6 with just about any G4. iMovie does a nice job of basic videomaking on G4s, and people have created some really polished movies with it. You may not need or want all the bells and whistles or the precision controls of Final Cut. That is your decision, based on your ambitions and your wallet. I suggest that as a beginning video editor you visit the iMovie and Final Cut Express discussion forums on the Apple Website, which are filled with beginners like you asking simple questions (whereas the FC Pro forum is filled with, well, pros, who can be helpful but are mostly wrapped up in high-end topics that are confusing to beginners.) See <http://tinyurl.com/dmzxsj> for iMovie or <http://tinyurl.com/ 69jmgs> for Final Cut Express (author and teacher Tom Wolsky hangs around the FCE forum every day answering beginner questions--a great resource). You can ask questions on those forums about what you want to do, and get quick and helpful answers. The latest two versions of iMovie are washouts, as far as I'm concerned. They were dumbed-down from earlier versions to appeal to a more mass audience who wanted to do things quickly and simply with a few mouse clicks, while iMovie versions 4 though 6 have real editing controls (my favorite is v.4, for reasons I won't go into). You can pick those versions of iMovie up cheaply on eBay, bundled with iLife '04, '05, or '06. The other thing you will need, besides a powerful enough Mac, is lots of storage space, because video eats up hard drive space like crazy. You can never get enough. Look for at least a 500-gig hard drive to begin with, internal or external, and expect to buy more hard drive space later on if you really get into video editing. You can get an idea of what Final Cut is capable of by looking at one of my tutorial videos on YouTube, for example this one: <http:// tinyurl.com/8wotmd>, or you might get a laugh out of this goofy one: <http://tinyurl.com/7l767w>. Both of those were done by Final Cut Express on a G4, before I moved up to Pro. I'm having even more fun now with Pro on a G5. Hope all this helps your decision-making. Tom --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
