Is my new Imac going to be powerful enough for Canon's h.264?

I have bought an Imac with an Intel Core i5 760 (quad) processor and 4 GB memory. (The most expensive stock Imac)

We also have Final Cut Pro's latest version, including the compressor.

I have read that the footage (movie) from Canon's 7D, 55D/t2i and 60D (which I will buy) is compressed to the h.264 format, which is very heavy for your computer.

So, will this Mac play the footage easily? Can I edit it after I compressed it to Apple's ProRes?
Or is this simply not powerful enough?

If you just want to play it, it'll be great with Quicktime. QT under 10.6.3+ has h.264 acceleration on the gpu. Final Cut should be fine too. Just remember you have to render h.264 video before you can edit it because it is frame-compressed.

All the Mac users I know convert to ProRes for editing. Not sure about previewing.

I have a dual core PC 2.13 ghz with 4gb RAM. It can't play raw h.264 well, but once converted with NeoScene I can preview and edit just fine with cs3.

I believe cs5 will handle your h264 files natively if you're willing to join the Adobe camp.

Telemov wrote in post #11303148
All the Mac users I know convert to ProRes for editing. Not sure about previewing.

I have a dual core PC 2.13 ghz with 4gb RAM. It can't play raw h.264 well, but once converted with NeoScene I can preview and edit just fine with cs3.

I believe cs5 will handle your h264 files natively if you're willing to join the Adobe camp.

Well we bought an Imac, mainly so we could work with Final Cut Pro and 1 reason being the ProRes compressor. PC's are much cheaper so I cant skip to Premiere now I would feel like I threw money away:P

Anyway, if your dual core with lower MHZ could edit just fine after it has been converted with NeoScene, I guess my i5 quad could do the same after it has been converted to Prores.

But for now, I hope that someone with a similar setup as mine could tell me that for sure :d

timeflight wrote in post #11303202
Well we bought an Imac, mainly so we could work with Final Cut Pro and 1 reason being the ProRes compressor. PC's are much cheaper so I cant skip to Premiere now I would feel like I threw money away:P

Anyway, if your dual core with lower MHZ could edit just fine after it has been converted with NeoScene, I guess my i5 quad could do the same after it has been converted to Prores.

But for now, I hope that someone with a similar setup as mine could tell me that for sure :d

Premiere and FCP are on par with each other these days, though Premiere is two and a half generations ahead so their rendering engine is superior. However, Motion & Color more than make up for this. I do professional video and have started working with 7D files. It's been a learning experience

Anyway, you really need to start reading this (link). It will answer all your questions about the 5DMKII and 7D workflow.

MaxxuM wrote in post #11304313
Premiere and FCP are on par with each other these days, though Premiere is two and a half generations ahead so their rendering engine is superior. However, Motion & Color more than make up for this. I do professional video and have started working with 7D files. It's been a learning experience

Anyway, you really need to start reading this (link). It will answer all your questions about the 5DMKII and 7D workflow.

Thanks. Informative.

But it doesnt answer the question if the Imac I have with the specs will be fast enough for (pleasant) editing.

Yes, it is. There you go. An i7 would be better, but only around 10% faster, but if you render hour long movies that 10% adds up.

Good discussion:

http://photo.net/digit​al-darkroom-forum/00XeNq

Just to clarify, CS5 is also available for Mac. I just read a post on another forum by a poster who was gushing about how well his MacBook with CS5 handled native DSLR files, multiple other formats, dropped into the timeline rescaled, and scrubbable/editable with no rendering. Google your MacBook/Premiere CS5 combo and see what others have said.

Example: http://www.cinema5d.co​m ….php?f=29&t=143​26&start=0

I'm looking forward to reading the threads posted in the previous posts. I was devastated when I tried importing my brand new 7D video files into my clunky two year old system with CS3 only to find I couldn't edit them without converting first.

I know we all have budgets and comfort zones with our NLE software (Mac+FCP/PC+CS5, for example), so I can totally understand your desire to stick with what you have. CS5 just looks so awesome I have to pimp it. I watched them playback 16 simultaneous video tracks in various formats, all of them rescaled, and nearly cried. Want.

- To play back the files, yes. Most computers can do that (albeit at a reduced resolution).

- Editing is different... without transcoding, then it will be choppy. Transcode the footage to pro-res and you'll be a-ok with the i5.

- CS5 is a bit different, no need to transcode... although I expect FCP to have the ability before long. Having said that, transcoding will always be the best way to go, better to colour-correct with 4:2:2 colour than the h.264.