Apple Releases New iMacs - good enough for video editing?

So Apple has rolled out their latest round of iMacs. I recently finally updated my trusty black MacBook to Snow Leopard, and disappointed myself when I’d forgotten that I can’t run the latest Final Cut Pro on it at ALL. So revisiting these iMacs, how are they for running the Final Cut Studio suite? And beyond can they, should you consider it as an editing platform?

Apple rolled out new iMacs today - short version - OK for video editors? Yes, but ONLY if the following criteria are met:

-only editing file based formats - not tape*
-don’t need professional calibrated video output for preview or recording to tape*
-don’t need additional high speed storage (anything faster than FW800)
-don’t need other card based capabilities

Read on after the jump for all the specs, options, my buying recommendations, and what iMacs are suitable for what editing operations.

Apple Announces New 12 core Macs….for $5000

The good news - Apple today announced new 12 core Macs that are up to 1 1/2 times faster than the current speedy Nehalem 8 core Macs.

The bad news - “Coming August” and starting at $5000*

So after the jump for the full info and breakdown.

I went and saw nitrate prints and Soderbergh on the same evening…

One of the benefits of living in LA - I was going to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tonight with a friend, but he emailed me in the afternoon to go see something else instead -

Just saw (OK, last night, internet connection down when got home) Steven Soderbergh speak at a UCLA film restoration thing - we watched The Devil Is A Woman, a 1935 black and white Marlene Dietrich film, shown on a rare nitrate print (the dies-from-the-edges, flammable-like-in-Inglorious-Basterds film stock), then we watched a digital projection of The Girlfriend Experience, his shot on Red in 15 days with crew of 12 indie flick I saw previously at Sundance. Notes from Q&A follow:

Arri Alexa - look out Red!

I went to the Arri Alexa rollout - quickie summary - AMAZING looking footage, ProRes to SxS cards onboard! ProRes4444 (w/out alpha) for 4:4:4, and ProResHQ for 4:2:2. Also 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 HD-SDI, also ArriRAW raw bayer data at 3.5K resolution - LOTS of choices. More later, here below are my raw (haha) notes. Will update with pics and more tomorrow.

Mike’s iPad rant-good device, bogus marketing

With the iPad about to ship in bulk for Saturday delivery and retail launch, some friends on mine were discussing who is getting one and who isn’t, and somebody asked for the group’s thoughts. What started out as an email didn’t get sent, it turned into this here. Apple calls the iPad “magical” and “revolutionary” and that it has an “unbelievable price” - welllllllllll….lets talk about that.

The Return of Blogwad

I used to have a semi-regular feature on hdforindies.com where I’d just scoop up all the interesting things that weren’t quite worth their own articles, and publish those as what I called a blogwad. Today I’m bringin’ it back, with a nice little collection showing my current interests these days - an article on why after-the-fact stereoscopic conversion is weak/lame/bad, a review of the LensBaby selective focus system (which is designed for still lenses, but no reason why I couldn’t use it on my Red with my Nikon mount adaptor), and an article on data recovery and good backup techniques (relevant since I accidentally trashed my 800GB iPhoto library recently, and have been poking along at getting it all back together). NEW - Also stuff on Canon 5D Mk II 24p firmware problems and AJA updates.

Continues after the jump.

Aperture 3.01 update released, update on my iPhoto ‘09 migration

Two things:

1.) Apple today released Aperture 3.0.1, addressing many of the issues I raised with version 3.0

2.) I’ve been busy on my iPhoto ‘09 to Aperture 3.0 upgrade saga, but did something incredibly dumb, losing me hundreds of hours of effort.

Details on both after the jump.

Another good article on color correction from Stu

Stu posts up another great article on color correction, and it boils down to making certain things look the way they are EXPECTED to look, rather than what they DO look like.

ProLost - Memory Colors: “The truth is, skin tones are just one of a small handful of what I call “memory colors.” Memory colors are colors that are, in the minds of your audience, inseparable from certain common objects or events. For example, the sky is so associated with blue that you might feel that you see those two words together as often as you see them individually. The same goes for green and grass.

The most basic idea of color correcting is that you are making colors correct, which is to say that you are making objects on the screen appear to be the colors that we know them to be.

The funny thing about this seemingly simple task is that it can be quite difficult. And it’s difficult for exactly the reason that it’s important.”

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