Who has experience editing Canon 5D footage on an 11 inch MBA?

[joejoejoe]

I've searched and searched and haven't been able to find an answer to this specific question.

I need to know if editing 5D footage in FCP on the 11 inch MBA is possible, or is the entire experienced hampered by ridiculously long rendering and converting to pro res?

I know the Air is capable of running FCP, but 5D files can be rather large and hard for computers to deal with. My 2007 MBP (R.I.P.) couldn't smoothly play 5D footage in quick look even. Am I going to have the same problem with the air or is it doable?

Also, I'm worried about the long term effects of taxing the CPU. I could just be theorizing but my 07 MBP was on its last legs, taking 5 minutes to open word, heating up like nobody's business, burning my legs, crashing, etc... and the only reason I can think this would happen is because of how hard I taxed the CPU with flash video, netflix, editing, etc. Could my MBA be destined to the same fate if I push it too hard?

Thank you all.

 

[joejoejoe]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to bump but I got no answers last time and I'm hoping some new eyes on the forum might be able to help me out with these answers.

I really need to hear from people who have worked with Canon 5D footage on the MBA. Even if you haven't edited on FCP with the footage, do the raw files still play smoothly in quicklook or quicktime? Or is there stuttering?

Also, once Apple starts using SB IGP instead of 320m, will this affect netflix streaming and HD youtube videos? From what I've gathered streaming in netflix and youtube in HD is okay with the 11 inch right now, and I'm worried a "downgrade" to intel IGP with SB will only make this worse.

If anyone has any insights at all, that would be really helpful.

Thank you all!

 

[peskaa]

No, the 11" Air won't handle 5D2 footage. Simply not enough grunt for the sheer amount of processing that it needs - an 11" Air is no better than your 2007 MBP if not worse.

Secondly, stop reading trash talk on the internet. The Intel IGP is basically the same as the 320M, not worse.

 

[joejoejoe]

Thanks for the quick reply! Are you speaking from experience or hypothetically?

Also, do you think the SB upgrade will solve this for me?

Thanks again.

 

[Psilocybin]

Thanks for the quick reply! Are you speaking from experience or hypothetically?

Also, do you think the SB upgrade will solve this for me?

Thanks again.

Whenever the upgrade is.

 

[merekdavis]

Actually, it works just fine and I'm speaking from experience. There is a little lag when starting and stopping footage, but I have an 11 4gb 128, and it did what I needed it to while I was away traveling.

As far as rendering or using compressor, plan on starting it, and then heading to bed.

BUT, it works just fine for cutting 1080p footage. Hope this helps.

 

[bubbagumpshrimp]

No, the 11" Air won't handle 5D2 footage. Simply not enough grunt for the sheer amount of processing that it needs - an 11" Air is no better than your 2007 MBP if not worse.

Secondly, stop reading trash talk on the internet. The Intel IGP is basically the same as the 320M, not worse.

Im guessing that you have not tried this... I play my 7d video on my 11" ultimate mba with no problem... just make sure to convert your video to "pro res 422". I wouldn't recommend the MBA for rendering as it can be slow (use my iMac for coloring rendering etc).. If you are looking to just layout your timeline and your out and about...the mba works fine.

 

[joejoejoe]

Im guessing that you have not tried this... I play my 7d video on my 11" ultimate mba with no problem... just make sure to convert your video to "pro res 422". I wouldn't recommend the MBA for rendering as it can be slow (use my iMac for coloring rendering etc).. If you are looking to just layout your timeline and your out and about...the mba works fine.

thank you! that's great news. I have an iMac i7 for my hardcore editing but will be moving to europe for about 6 months and need some portable for travel that can still handle my footage. So 11 inch here I come! Hopefully SB will come in June.

If anyone has any more insight on this or the other questions I posted above please reply, thanks again.

 

[peskaa]

Thanks for the quick reply! Are you speaking from experience or hypothetically?

Also, do you think the SB upgrade will solve this for me?

Thanks again.

Experience - we have an 11" Air in the office, and use 5D2 video regularly for education. The theoretical SB upgrade may make a difference, as SB CPUs are distinctly faster.

Actually, it works just fine and I'm speaking from experience. There is a little lag when starting and stopping footage, but I have an 11 4gb 128, and it did what I needed it to while I was away traveling.

As far as rendering or using compressor, plan on starting it, and then heading to bed.

BUT, it works just fine for cutting 1080p footage. Hope this helps.

Weird, our 11" (4GB, 128 SSD, base CPU) definitely drops frames, and lags like anything when trying to make changes. The SSD is certainly helping for I/O performance (I'd dread it on a HD), but the CPU is a bit of a weakling.

Of course, playing back finalised, encoded, footage is fine.

Im guessing that you have not tried this... I play my 7d video on my 11" ultimate mba with no problem... just make sure to convert your video to "pro res 422". I wouldn't recommend the MBA for rendering as it can be slow (use my iMac for coloring rendering etc).. If you are looking to just layout your timeline and your out and about...the mba works fine.

As above, yes, I've tried it many times. That said, we're using the base CPU rather than the upgraded. If I was buying an Air for video I'd definitely be looking at a 13" model.

As for rendering, don't even go there. I offload to an Xgrid system.

 

[wisty]

No, the 11" Air won't handle 5D2 footage. Simply not enough grunt for the sheer amount of processing that it needs - an 11" Air is no better than your 2007 MBP if not worse.

Secondly, stop reading trash talk on the internet. The Intel IGP is basically the same as the 320M, not worse.

I don't think Inte's SD can do OpenCL or CUDA, and it's not quite as good at graphics.

Both are good for casual gaming, but neither are great.

SB won't be a great upgrade, except for battery life. Slightly faster, slightly less GPU grunt, and much more efficient. Oh, and you'll get thunderbolt.

But it won't be anywhere near a MBP or an iMac.

 

[Cerano]

I don't think Inte's SD can do OpenCL or CUDA, and it's not quite as good at graphics.

Both are good for casual gaming, but neither are great.

SB won't be a great upgrade, except for battery life. Slightly faster, slightly less GPU grunt, and much more efficient. Oh, and you'll get thunderbolt.

But it won't be anywhere near a MBP or an iMac.

agreed
Intel's IGP definitely cant do CUDA and that makes a hella big difference.

I'd support sandybridge if quicksync is somehow enabled on osx (which i doubt will happen)

 

[ZombieZakk]

the main difference in the hd3000 and the 320m is what OS your on in OSX the hd3000 performs identical to the 320m but in windows the 320m far surpasses the hd3000 as windows drivers are not optimized for it like osx ones are. so if you never run windows 7 the hd3000 will be fine but if you use bootcamp alot then youll want the 320m and yes this is from experience.

 

[fs454]

I use my 11" MBA ultimate to edit 5D footage all the time. It's pretty much what I bought it for, mobile use and light editing when I'm away from my Mac Pro.


Quicklooking raw files off the memory card stutters, but everything plays fine in Quicktime with 5% CPU usage. Just one extra click.

To get it into ProRes, I use my Mac Pro, I can't imagine doing this on the MBA as it would take forever. Editing, however, is a breeze with FCP. Obviously rendering effects and stuff will take a bit, but if you're just assembling an edit or doing a project that doesn't require heavy effects, you're not gonna be rendering much if you edit in ProRes.