To Save or Not to Save....

foto41

I am mainly a photographer, and choosing a system to handle thousands of images a month was a process that evolved over years. I hope to avoid that with this question and get some feedback on what others are doing with video.

Currently, I have only used iMovie for my limited video excursions. After I shoot the video, I import it into iMovie which changes the file (MP4) into a .MOV. Should I be saving the original MP4 file for anything or is the converted .MOV file as good, the same, better. I really don't want to keep even MORE hard drives than I already do, but I don't want to throw away files I might need later on for something I am as of yet unaware of. Advice???

I have purchased FinalCutX, but have not gone in too deep yet.

DavidTO

foto41 wrote: »

I am mainly a photographer, and choosing a system to handle thousands of images a month was a process that evolved over years. I hope to avoid that with this question and get some feedback on what others are doing with video.

Currently, I have only used iMovie for my limited video excursions. After I shoot the video, I import it into iMovie which changes the file (MP4) into a .MOV. Should I be saving the original MP4 file for anything or is the converted .MOV file as good, the same, better. I really don't want to keep even MORE hard drives than I already do, but I don't want to throw away files I might need later on for something I am as of yet unaware of. Advice???

I have purchased FinalCutX, but have not gone in too deep yet.

A) would you mind editing your signature to remove the font tags?

get farther into FCP first. The answer is different. For iMovie I would not rely on the .mov files. I'm not sure what the codec is, but it's not ProRes (which FCP would be), so it's not archival, IMO.

foto41

Signature edited.

iMovie has a choice, Apple Intermeadiate Codec Linear PCM or h.264 AAC

Would you mind defining "archival".

In the past I have imported everything into iMovie and used it as a browser and editor, similar to Lightroom.

I would really be interested in workflow ideas.

Thanks!!

DavidTO

I simply mean something worth saving. Both of those codecs are not so great.

Get a tutorial on FCPX and I think that a lot of your questions will be answered. I haven't been able to use it yet, since all the work I do is still on FCP7 and FCPX is missing features that are required at my work, plus changing the whole company over is something that doesn't happen this quickly. Anyway, I dont' have specific suggestions yet, but you own FCP and should/will be using it instead of iMovie, so get to know it a little first before you ask about workflow, IMO. Ripple Training has a tutorial that's $40 and is pretty good.