I'll be going to college this fall as a film major. As far as a laptop it looks like I'll be getting a Macbook Pro.

Final Cut Pro obviously seems to be the first editing program to look to, but it's a bit pricey after buying the macbook itself. Are there any options in the sub-$1,000 range that could get me through the next two years? Would an earlier version of fcp or adobe cs work very well with HD video?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

There is Final Cut Express (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB278Z/A?fnode=NDQ4OTY4OA&mco=MTA5MDg2Mzk) for $200. Depending on what feature you need it may do the job for you. ;)

Well, there's always iMovie

As a student, you can also get a discount on FCP or FCExpress. You can't upgrade any software you buy as a student-but-that should get you through two years.

And agreed, iMovie isn't too bad.

Personally, I say bit the bullet and get FCP. It's what we use and we love it.

Are there any options in the sub-$1,000 range that could get me through the next two years?

The full un-discounted price of FCS is $999. The Academic version is $899.

I started using FCE4 and it is a big learning curve. It would seem to make sense to start with it and move to Pro when you have some knowledge and money. I have been able to do all I want in FCE4 as long as it was fairly simple.

I would say, if you are a film student, and/or are planning to do film stuff for a while, bite the bullet and get FCP.

I finally did and it opened a LOT of doors. Totally worth it. I'm a student too, so I understand about being on a tight budget - but finally doing it actually opened the door for paying gigs and neat collaborations.

wow, thanks for all the feedback! To me it's between FCE and FCP now. I know I'll be able to afford express a lot sooner than pro, but at the same time I know I'll eventually switch to pro anyway.

Another thing I've been thinking about is how quickly apple produces new versions of their software. By the time I'm going to need something as advanced as FCP, version 8 might have already have come out. Could it be a smarter financial desicion to stick with express until then?

i use premiere cs4 on my mbp. idk how much it costs, i got the adobe master collection for free :)

FCE is strong enough to suit you... I own both. You'll eventually want the added stuff in FCS, but it'll do for now :)

I'm just getting into all this film stuff and I'm looking at FCS vs FCE and I'm going to go with FCS right off the bat.

My reasoning is this, if your eventually going to buy a copy of Final Cut Studio, the upgrade cost vs. the cost of FCE is about the same, so why not go pro now?
FCE + FCP (at a later date) ~$1300
FCP + FCP Upgrade (at a later date) ~$1400 - assuming the same upgrade cost.

So you pay more now, but you'll be using the Pro software for longer. For me, that just makes sense.