21.5" vs 27" for 1080 HD film editing

[laserbeam273]

I'm considering getting an imac as I'm planning on doing 1080 HD film editing as a regular hobbie, specifically dive videos (1.5-2hrs raw footage per week). Now from my understanding the 21.5" is exactly 1080 HD, and the 27" is significantly bigger. So how much of an advantage is it having the extra screen space? Is it like:

A) "I suppose it's nice but it's really not necessary"
B) "Really handy to have, makes a big difference"
C) "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING BUYING AN IMAC TO DO 1080 HD FILM EDITING WHEN THE SCREEN IS ONLY JUST 1080 HD!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

The reason why I'm not immediately jumping for the 27" option is that, as nice as it is to have that massive screen space, I haven't got loads of spare money and I'm a uni student, so my income really just covers living costs. I could get it by selling some shares, but... yeah. Not preferred.

Also, I'll try wait for the refresh to come out before I buy. More cost effective that way.

 

[iSayuSay]

Yeah 21.5" isn't that bad either. But try to get hi-end 21.5". It has 5670 GPU and 1Tb HDD compared to basic 21.5" that has 500Gb HDD and 4670 GPU

So you have more power in graphic processing, you can play game sometimes if you want to
And 21.5" is big enough if you ever play with them on local Apple Store, only problem is they don't have ultimate raw power compared to quad core 27".

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The 21.5" iMac will be just fine, as you don't edit video and film in fullscreen mode but the video is shown in some small window. Therefore you could even edit on a 11" MBA, though there will be not enough room to edit comfortably.

 

[laserbeam273]

That's probably good to hear. Given that I'd wait for the refresh, and wouldn't want to be paying the full price of a top of the line imac, it'd most likely be a choice between the new 21.5" or an old refurbished 27". New 21.5" sounds good because I'd expect them to have a quad core given that the MBP 15" have them. Should be a powerful machine!