I have been looking into purchasing a new editing system as my current one is fast approaching its used by date. Up until now I have been looking into building a new system running the Adobe CS3 suite. However, I have all sorts of sales rep pushing alternative solutions such as Final Cut Pro, Avid and even Media 100 machines. This got me thinking, seeing as I am about to make the biggest single investment in my video business so far, should I look at other options?
So at the risk of creating a system vs system stand off between everyone on the forum I must ask which system is the best for editing P2 footage (Which is what I am currently using).
In particular I would like to hear from people who have used more than one system for editing.
I guess I should also point out that I am still very keen to use After Effects within my projects and would like to know how well the workflow between these systems can be. I have no doubt that Premiere and After Effects can't be beat for integration, but I read that Media 100 projects can be opened up directly in After Effects which is of a lot of interest to me.
Re: What is the best editing system for Panasonic P2 footage by Timothy Eng on Apr 3, 2008 at 3:12:14 am
Hi guys,
I also forgot to ask about learning resources. Whilst I know there is a mountain of tutorials and forums etc for Premiere and Final Cut, I was wondering what kind of learning resources there was for Avid and Media 100 systems and what their individual learning curves were?
I have a lot of experience in Premiere and consider myself quite proficient with it. On the few occasions I have used alternative software (such as Final Cut and Edius) I have found it easy enough to edit with, albeit a bit slow on my behalf. However, the finer things such as color correction, multicam editing, compositing video with alpha channels and outputing to tape or rendering video files were a bit more work to get going.
Re: What is the best editing system for Panasonic P2 footage by Shane Ross on Apr 3, 2008 at 10:16:17 pm
I don't know about Media 100, but I know that FCP handles footage from this camera very well...as does Avid. Premiere CS3 just added native support, and Vegas works with it using a plugin called Raylight (also available for Adobe and FCP).
Best is a relative term...what system are you most comfortable with, and what are your editing needs. I have edited P2 footage primarily with FCP, but also used the Avid, and am going to be testing Premiere soon. I can only rave about FCP...although others complain about the import process and tout Raylight with Vegas or Premiere. FCP has Raylight support now, so that is moot...IMHO.
Re: What is the best editing system for Panasonic P2 footage by Brad Neal on Apr 8, 2008 at 1:07:53 pm
Hi Tim,
I know you asked for opinions from those with experience in multiple apps, but I'm going to offer an opinion anyway...
First, if you are already proficient with PPro, and it is serving you well, I would question whether the other apps offer enough incentives to switch. Especially since PPro now accepts native P2 (except AVC Intra).
Second, if you are looking for interoperability between your NLE and the other Adobe suite apps, it just doesn't get any better than PPro.
Third, if you add Matrox Axio hardware to the PPro mix, you have a dedicated HD system that will allow you to work with tons of real-time effects.
The other apps are fine, professional tools. And if you were starting from scratch, you may find one fits your workflow better than another. But I would be hard pressed to find any feature set among the others that would compel me to switch at this stage of the game.
Re: What is the best editing system for Panasonic P2 footage by Timothy Eng on Apr 8, 2008 at 2:27:15 pm
Hi Guys,
Thanks all for their input. Well after spending two weeks trying to render a simple 2 camera shoot I have had enough of Premiere. I finally found a fix for the problem, but unfortunately these problems always seem to occur every now and then.
I'm sure most would agree that as soon as you start having these issues it really hammers your creative process and will evenetually make the edit process tedious and draining.
I guess I've had too many crashes, software bugs and "workarounds" to stay with Premiere. I can hear everyone out these yelling "Welcome to video editing buddy", but I really think I am needing a new start. So after speaking to several pro video sellers here in Oz, I have decided to go the final cut solution. The thing that has really sold me on Final Cut was a friend inviting me to his edit suite and having a play on his 18 month old system. FC worked the whole day without a single glitch. An experience which has maybe happened once or twice in the past few years with Premiere!
The good news is, after ringing Adobe I found out I can upgrade my CS3 production suite across to the Mac platform for only $25 (to cover postage and DVD printing costs). While I was frustrated with Premiere and even Encore every now and again, I have never had any issue with Photoshop or After Effects. Being able to keep them in my workflow is critical so I am now really looking forward to the new system.
Although I have to agree that you can't beat Adobe for integration, the Apple apps seem to have a surprising amount of integration as well. And seeing that the dynamic link was always a RAM hungry, system crashing beast, I can live with importing to and from the Apple apps and Photoshop and After Effects.
Even after seeing the Adrenaline systems from Avid I still have to say that I am very happy with FC Studio. It's a bit of a shame that almost nobody around here deals in Media 100 as I would have really liked to look at their solutions, but "Such is Life".
Re: What is the best editing system for Panasonic P2 footage by Noah Kadner on Apr 9, 2008 at 5:45:21 am
Yep- really depends on your goals. Premiere has native MXF support and nice integration. That said, if editing as a career is your goal you'll be searching a long time to find Premiere jobs over Avid or FCP jobs. So it kind of comes back to what is the most important thing.
