Replacement mouse for FCP editing*

does anyone have any suggestions regarding a good mouse for use while editing in FCP? the standard apple mouse just doesn't seem to give enough support, my work requires 9 hours a day pretty intensive editing 5 days a week, and i'm starting to get pain in my wrist.

if possible i'd like to stay away from roller-ball mouses, or have any editors here had a positive experience changing from a standard apple mouse to a roller-ball type?

Cheers.

I personally don't like roller balls either.
However, you're talking about ergonomics, and that's different for every person. I find the most basic Apple mouse very comfortable, for example, but detest the oh-so-stylish non-buttons, and the lack of a scroll wheel. I used the Mighty Mouse for a year and hated it even more; that tiny little scroll ball (somebody else in the forum had an unflattering human-anatomy name for it) will drive you batty.

For the last three years I've been using a $25 Kensington laser mouse, the Si300. While it's a bit high for my taste, it still has a hugely reliable scroll wheel and the tracking is good. And real left/right buttons, too.

My advice would be to try as many as you can. Everybody's hand is different, everybody's mouse habits are different. But also, you can reduce mouse fatigue by learning to use the fastest mouse tracking speed possible (so you don't have to fight the cursor), as well as a fast double-click speed. You'd be surprised how much faster you can work if you can get used to those settings, because that means you have to move your hand a lot less to travel a large distance on the screen. And a good surface and mouse pad, as well.


www.derekmok.com

thanks derek - i may take a look at that Kensington...

Love the Logitech Optical Mouse - two buttons and a scroll wheel -- can't go back to the regular old apple mouse after using this -- and the mighty mouse -- one of Apple's worst products ever

> the mighty mouse -- one of Apple's worst products ever

Mighty Mouse. Safari. iTunes 8. iMac "UFO" mouse. Current "space-age" keyboard.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch.


www.derekmok.com

you'd think there'd be something out there akin to those killer 3d mouses - something you put your hand and wrist on, almost in.

[www.3dconnexion.com] - it would be cool if something like this was developed specifically for use with final cut . . .

>> the mighty mouse -- one of Apple's worst products ever

>Mighty Mouse. Safari. iTunes 8. iMac "UFO" mouse. Current "space-age" keyboard.

>Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch.

Never a fan of the Apple Mices. However, I usually use Safari and i love the thin metallic keyboard- I find it faster once you get used to it (can't stand the version without the keypad, though...)



www.strypesinpost.com

I use a Mighty Mouse full time, and the current thin keyboard is the One True Keyboard.

(I gotta wonder, though ? what the heck is so bad about iTunes 8?)

iTunes 8 is when every selected track carried six, seven links to iTunes Store. Yeah, we're too dumb to enter a search string into iTunes Store ourselves. And what's the point of giving a link to a track that we already have? I have a bunch of MP3s from my own original music albums, and the iTunes links even peppered those. Huh!?

It needed a QuickTime upgrade, which could mess with your editing system.

Genius never worked for me. Not comprehensive enough, far too broad, anything but ingenious. I'm the kind of music obsessive that differentiates speed metal, thrash metal, death metal and black metal. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't.

Worst of all, you couldn't pick your actual file names when you convert -- at least, when I first tried iTunes 8 and was utterly disgusted by it. iTunes added track numbers to the beginning of every file regardless of what you put into the name (and no, "Add Track Number" was not a user-controllable option anymore in that version -- I checked and even e-mailed Apple to confirm). So, if I have 30,000 MP3s (which is a low estimate), about 1500 of them would start with "1", another 1500 would start with "2", and so on. Why on God's green and verdant earth would they have done that?

Some of these features may have been improved since then. But by God, so many of these features were working before Version 8, and they broke them for no reason. I reverted to iTunes 7 and unless I know for sure they fixed this, I'm not upgrading.


www.derekmok.com

Second vote for Logitech. I use the Cordless Click on the desk and a V220 on laptop or traveling to class. The V220 is a slightly scaled down mouse with similar hand-filling shape but only7 one battery, and the USB broadcaster stores and slides into the base-- and shuts the thing off! Uses a single AA. Most elegant design I've yet seen on a full featured cordless mouse. Both inexpensive and have scroll wheel/buttons.

I do not work for Logitech. I work with Logitech ;-)

- Loren

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