[MacDV] Why a G5 does not work for me

[Michael Winter]

On Friday, June 27, 2003, at 12:05  PM, beliefpictures at shaw.ca wrote:

> Most of the editing I will be doing on my Blue and White G3/350 is 
> with Adobe Premiere 6.5 qnd possible with a Sony Media Converter. 
> Where the new G5's are nice I see no reason to re-invest every 6 
> months. I mean it is getting rather ridiculous don't you think?

It all depends on what you're doing. The fastest Mac on the planet 
can't capture video any faster than the old iMac DV I have at home. If, 
after that, you're mostly cutting and splicing, a G4 or better will 
help a little, but at least for me its still limited mostly by operator 
speed.

When it comes to doing transitions and other effects, a G4 or better 
will make a big difference. But again, if you don't do this much it may 
not be much of a factor. The next step is exporting. If you're just 
outputting back to tape, the lowly G3 can do it just as fast as 
anything else (real time). If you exporting to a file in anything other 
than full quality DV, the difference between a G3 and G4 can be 
staggering (1 hr vs 8 depending on codec and settings). Though if its 
something you only do occasionally and you do it overnight it may be no 
biggie either.

So even though a G4 or G5 is definitely better, for occasional home use 
I see nothing wrong with sticking with the venerable B/W G3. Save your 
money and upgrade when you feel the need.

-Mike