I’m about to start learning to edit my drone videos having no experience of this before , I am thinking of getting a iPad Pro 12.9 inch 4th gen with 1TB of memory/ storage . Does anyone use one of these ? Is it upto the job ? I’ve searched for previous topics but could not find much but totally understand and welcome if you want to move this to a better place . Most of the video is shot in 4K 30fps from my M2P . Any advise welcome.
According to this review on 4K Shooters, it is not an everyday professional replacement to an editing device. But fine as an emergency solution.
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Thanks for the link , I think they are doing far more professional stuff than what I’m likely to be doing but a interesting read
I also have a iPad Pro 12.9 - 1 tb. . .
I fly a Mavic 2 pro and DJI Mini 2, I edit using LumaFusion. . . . .
It works well for me. It’s user friendly.
I’m no expert, but results are very acceptable.
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I have a iPad Pro 12.9 but with far less storage than the one you’re thinking on getting. I’ve used LumaFusion for editing and I must say it’s a very reliable app to edit videos. I’m no expert and used the app twice only and even with no previous experience I’m quite happy with the results.
iPads can be very limited tho, it has thousands of functionalities but does not replace a good laptop/desktop. If you’re using it for recreational purposes on your daily tasks and eventually editing videos etc I’d highly recommend it, but if you’re going to use it also for university or on professional tasks keep in mind that it lacks some (or a lot, depends on what you’re using it for) tools which you can only find on laptops.
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Thank you , I would really only be using it for editing as I have other devices for everything else and the reason it’s this iPad Pro is I have the chance of one at a really good price , to be honest I was looking at a MacBook until this came up ,
Yes I use the iPad Pro 12.9 and Lumafusion and does the job extremely well. I used to do my editing on a 2012 27” iMac but decided not to replace it.
I now have the best of both worlds, I have just replaced my old iMac with the new Macmini basic model with the M1 chip and the architecture is the same as iOS so for no extra cost I rum Lumafusion on both the iPad and the Macmini. I can edit anywhere and when back home on the same network I send the Lumafusion projects across and edit on the big monitors. This is a new development and Lumafusion are updating the app all the time to run on both iPad and Mac
It’s is a single very cost effective purchase to run on one or the other.
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I have an iPad Pro 12.9, but would not recommend it for 4K editing simply because of the screen size and the limited nature of the editing software.
If you have an excess computer monitor (or a HDMI 4K TV screen) and an old mouse/keyboard, give some thought to a brand new M1 Mac Mini. This is currently just about the fastest video processing available on any over-the-counter computer, and will cost £200 less than the iPad.
I have one, and its processing of video is breathtaking. Check the videos in YouTube…
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Thank you, I will take a look as the Mac mini has already mentioned
Are you totally committed to the Apple route or the the PC still factor in? If your going Apple and paying the apple tax then you might as well buy a copy of final cut pro. Its used by a lot of youtubers and semi pro film makers. Also buy Apple care. If you mac goes faulty the default position of the Genius bar is to sell you a return device or they sell start racking up the costs of repair. Inside every apple device there are moisture indicators. little dots that turn red it they come into contact with water. of you take an apple device to an apple store for service and they see ANY of these dots change colour they say water damage no warranty for you. Just being in a humid room will cause those dots to change. sot be warned. Have a look at Luis Rossman or Jess @ ipad rehab on YouTube to see how serviceable an apple device is and what you will actually get from apple service.
If you continue to want to put money through the shredder then you can use adobe. They will charge you an monthly subscription for the pleasure. Nice software everyone on YouTube seems yo use it. that is why YouTube videos look the same. There is a “free” equivalent that is DaVinci resolve from Black magic. I use the word “free” in quote because you do get the entire package for free. Everything works. the caviat is that you cannot use their fancy control decks and keyboards and there is a limit to the number of effects you can use on one production. Most people who user the “free” version don’t have any issues. If you wat to unlock everything then it is £300 with lifetime updates. or if you buy and black magic camera you get the full version with it.
Staying with the PC is you wat to try before you buy and you are mot looking to do anything overly fancy have a look at videopad from NCH. it will run on just about anything. I use it and I edit on an i5 with no gpu. i hit some bottle necks rendering out but nothing too bad.
I am not having a go at apple btw. For creative work like music, video and photography they are brilliant. they just work and are industry standard. It is when something goes wrong is when you enter the hurt locker. Apple are moving towards rolling their own silicon. the laptop devices are well known for thermal throttling under heavy loads like video rendering and they are also not starting to make the batteries non replaceable and also the memory and storage non upgradeable or removable. For the latter if your device does not power on and you do not have a copy of your data elsewhere and time machine has not backed it up. GAME OVER the data is GONE!!
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Suggestions on a better machine than the new Mini or MacBook Air M1 for the money?
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How long is a piece of string? That’s the problem with the realm there are so many configurations. That’s why the industry love the mac. they are all standard speck ranges. It is a bit like car specs of old l, lx Ghia and Vanda pals. you know what your getting.
PC is more like a kit car. it may have a merc engine but is on a sierra chassis or what?
Have a look at this vid from LTT https://youtu.be/w_HKRUPN1Mk they took apart a mac mini m1 https://youtu.be/v5CC_Cwro4E
what I’m getting at is that the pc can be upgraded as your work needs grow. with the mac you have to make a decision for the future.
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Personally I’m using a MBP Late 2013, still able to edit 4k drone video in FCPX, ok speed wise its not a patch on my 2018 iMac, but still very capable.
Anyone buying today wanting something thats going to work and for the next few years cannot go far wrong with the M1 stuff on offer from Apple, that just works, coupled with software thats written by the people who make the machine.
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If a Mac can edit 4K video today it’ll still be able to edit 4K video ten years from now. It simply won’t slow down. It’s linux, right?
Unlike a Windows machine which will grind to a halt ten years from now from sheer OS/malware bloat alone 
Which makes the top spec Mac Mini M1 work out to around £110 a year.
Bargain.
Anyway, never mind all that.
What sorcery is this?!
Which makes it cheaper than one cup of Starbucks coffee per week.
Come on people!!! Wake up and smell the coffee!!
(see what I did there??)
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My concern here, much as I’m an Apple fan, this won’t last ten years due to iOS updates being capped at “X” hardware version in future years 
It’s also £1,500 
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Buy the entry iPad (I got the youngest one at Xmas, very capable it is) and with the change buy an M1 MacBook Air
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I use LumaFusion all the time and is brilliant especially in conjunction with Apple TV as you can air play to the big screen while editing and by pressing the small tv icon in the app the preview window is in full screen on the tv while you have all the adjustments sliders on the iPad.
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The iPad I was offered was £1000 , but after reading the advise given I am thinking MacBook Air or Mac mini but how much memory to go for ?
The reviews would suggest 8GB is ok, the M1 uses memory differently to traditional chips (someone will explain that better)
There are lots of reviews on youtube, search video editing or FCPX on M1 Macbook Air/Mini
As for the HDD, Apple upgrades are silly expensive and you are not going to be easily able to get into the thing to add extra. I get away with 256GB SSD in my MBP and on the iMac, but have a 1TB SSD
that I use between the 2 for video and photo projects.
As for buying one, find someone with a .ac.uk or .sch.uk email address for 10% discount via Apple Edu Store
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