FCP X Now available to buy and download from App Store

[David Parks]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

Sheesh, it seems some folks can't think past "today" when they look at something.
FCPX is missing several important Pro features. It will likely get them in future updates which will come every few months rather than waiting for discs to print and ship.

"Today"..let's see today i have a multicam edit to finish by 3:00 pm
Today I have to re-edit a STS 134 project from last April
Today I have to round trip a project to AE

Today is the real world...with real deadlines and real money and expectations.

Don't mean to be terse...use what works for you,,but it is hard to look to tomorrow when you have things to do today. But, again...today... FCP X is rating at 2 1/2 stars on reviews on Apple Store.

Cheers,,,If FCPX knocks my socks off tomorrow..I will buy it. But today...no way.

[Barry Gribble]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

There's no reason for you to use it today if you don't need to. You can keep using FCP7 or any other NLE until in matures.

But you have to bet on a horse.

For the people out there who never do an external sound mix or never want to do an internal sound mix with a mixer or submixes - fine, use FCPX. Ditto for the people who never want an external monitor. Or who never want to use an advanced color correction system.

I have to start new projects today. I can't use FCPX for them. Do I use FCP 7? Knowing that there is no upgrade path for life? It's been pronounced dead. Or do I make the jump and use Premiere, or Avid, knowing that those companies are definitely catering to professional needs and will continue to.

There is no chance in hades that I'm going to even play with FCPX and learn a new editing paradigm with nothing but hope that Apple, who decided to put out a prosumer product, will suddenly decide that they want to put out a professional one. If they do, I'll cheer and reconsider. But there's no way that I'm betting on that horse.

[Steve Kalle]

Originally Posted by Paul Curtis

I'm a long term user from the Premiere/AE side, i have in fact the first copy of AE somewhere around here. I have invested thousands in Adobe Products. I tried Final Cut Express but hated it. I've edited short commercial pieces up to 2 hour dramas.

I absolutely love this Final Cut. It combines 99% of what i need across Premiere and AE in a single place, the grading, animated masks and overall editing are what i think should be in an editing package. (I have a VFX background so like to do my own work)

I'm on a macbook pro i7 and it runs really well. I will live with it longer but probably move my main machines over to Macs for this.

I do think though that there are a lot of existing workflows people have that simply don't fit into this approach. Tape based for one. But i've not used tape in years. There's also a massive shift in editing and i think the UI promotes creativity rather than mundane logging and editing. So these things are not right for a lot of 'bread and butter' work. Maybe these issues can be addressed.

I'm not one for being a fanboy, but i really do think apple have managed to shove the creative side of editing up a level and i look forward to doing serious work in it and concentrating on the content - not dynamic linking of compositing, faffing with Magic Bullet Look masks because they don't animate. etc,. etc,.

cheers
Paul

Hi Paul,

You and I have a similar background although you have many more years on me. I wish there was a good NLE with some of AE integrated at a decent price but the only program I have found is Autodesk's Smoke (Linux or OSX). The bummer is that it costs $15k per seat on Mac or $45k-90k for a turnkey Linux setup. However, if you sign up to FXPHD, you get to use Smoke on Mac for free to learn.

To everyone saying that you should wait for it to 'mature', give me a break - it is 2011 and software developers are amazing now. Its not like OSX just became 64bit or Apple just switched to new hardware. I didn't hear ANY of this when Adobe completely re-wrote Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5 making them fully 64bit in addition to Encore and Adobe Media Encoder - that is 4 programs in 18 months. The ONLY feature I had to wait for was 10bit output from PPro.

I am not happy that FCPX is such a step backwards because it doesn't make Avid and Adobe work harder to make their apps better.

[Charles Newcomb]

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

I

If you are an indy with no budget who just shoots your own projects on DSLR then FCPX may be a great product. If you actually work with video to pay the bills look elsewhere.

Forgive me, but this is elitist gibberish that is offensive and shows a lack of respect for those who march to the beat of a different drummer than you.

I'm a one man band, and I make a pretty decent living at it. I enjoy not being strapped to a desk in an office. I like very much the idea that if I don't get a paycheck, it's because of my own doing, not because the company I work for has made some poor economic choices. It was tough learning to light, shoot, record sound, edit, mix sound and color correct; but I did it and now I feel freer. It's very satisfying to have your creations actually be your creations.

I'm also not an Apple cheerleader. But in this case I applaud them for taking bold steps to correct the clunkiness of FCP. And I believe more traditionally professional features will come as time goes by... just as they did after FCP1 was released.

If you want to sit in your cubicle and look down your nose at those of us whom you consider unprofessional because we don't fit your mold, you should know a little more about the subject about which you speak. But if you ever get a chance to get out in the field, do a quick cut for the client to look at before you leave and have them smile and say "Wow, that looks great!" I highly recommend you do. It's very satisfying and I appreciate Apple making that possibility a little easier for me.

By the way: At the risk of attracting further scorn from you, I should also mention that in the last few months I have transitioned from horribly expensive video cameras to purchasing and learning how to use several DSLRs. I am absolutely enamored by the images they produce, and after reverting back to the old film-production techniques I learned years ago, it is now my principal means of acquisition. I've even learned how to overcome the audio issues some DSLR detractors keep tossing up for discussion.

I'm anxious to see how this all plays together in FCP X. For three hundred bucks, it won't sting very much if it turns out to be a hinderance, rather than an effective tool to help me along the path I've chosen.

There. I'll climb down from my high horse now.

[Zach Love]

I'm really interested to hear how Motion performs & how stable it is.

A while ago I created a new bin mistyped "Motion" as "Motino," looked at the mistake & thought "I'm going to keep it as 'Motino' since that sounds like an alcoholic drink and then maybe gives me the idea that Motion is really drunk all the time, which is what makes it crash all the time."

[Pete Bauer]

Gentlemen, there will be no ad hominem derision or attacks on DVinfo. Please keep all discussion related to the topic and not each other. We Wranglers don't like to wield our lassos, but have no hesitation about doing a rope-a-dope if the need arises. (In other words, threads that go ugly get yanked from view).

It is perfectly possible to discuss suitability for different market segments without insulting others.

[Oliver Neubert]

Originally Posted by Barry Gribble

Or do I make the jump and use Premiere, or Avid, knowing that those companies are definitely catering to professional needs and will continue to.

If you are running an up to date OS X (10.6.7) you can look forward to a clean install of OSX and update only to 10.6.6 otherwise Media Composer 5.5 will not run and it will screw up your system... Unless you find a way to downgrade your OS...

[Heath McKnight]

Originally Posted by Joe Batt

Went to download it and the reviews were so bad it scared me off. Think I might wait on the sidelines and see what happens with updates.

Probably a good idea!

heath

[Arnie Schlissel]

Originally Posted by Steve Connor

As I understand it, NO plug-ins will work with the new version

Noise Industries has already released an update for their plugins that work with FCP-X. I think it's safe to assume that many others will follow soon.

[Heath McKnight]

FxFactory 2.6

Also, I think we'll see quick major updates (both regular-cycle upgrades, and revision number changes), especially compared to the two years it took for FCP 1 to upgrade to the not-so-great ver. 2 (remember, ver. 2 came out spring 2001, but ver. 3 shipped by the end of the year), and all the other upgrades. And I think we'll see affordable revision number changes

heath

[Arnie Schlissel]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

Sheesh, it seems some folks can't think past "today" when they look at something.

Kind of like playing "peekaboo" with a baby... If they can't see you, they think you've ceased to exist.

[Tim Dashwood]

There is actually a very simple way to get your favourite FxPlug plugins to work in FCP X, assuming the plugin already works in Motion 5. You can create a FCP X filter template in Motion 5, "publish" the controls you want, name it, save it, and it will show up in FCP X. I just did it with one of my own plugins and it works fine.
Special dynamic UI stuff won't carry over though, so complicated plugins like Primatte will likely need a rewrite.

[Oliver Neubert]

I think I'll go to the London Supermeet and see what Larry has to say about all this...

[Ronan Fournier]

Larry's on a very difficult position: he can' t criticize too much FCPX if he wants to sell FCPX' DVD training (and continue to be friend with Apple's guys), but he must be objective about the defaults of FCPX if he doesn't want to loose his credibility…

[Thomas Smet]

Originally Posted by Charles Newcomb

Forgive me, but this is elitist gibberish that is offensive and shows a lack of respect for those who march to the beat of a different drummer than you.

I'm a one man band, and I make a pretty decent living at it. I enjoy not being strapped to a desk in an office. I like very much the idea that if I don't get a paycheck, it's because of my own doing, not because the company I work for has made some poor economic choices. It was tough learning to light, shoot, record sound, edit, mix sound and color correct; but I did it and now I feel freer. It's very satisfying to have your creations actually be your creations.

I'm also not an Apple cheerleader. But in this case I applaud them for taking bold steps to correct the clunkiness of FCP. And I believe more traditionally professional features will come as time goes by... just as they did after FCP1 was released.

If you want to sit in your cubicle and look down your nose at those of us whom you consider unprofessional because we don't fit your mold, you should know a little more about the subject about which you speak. But if you ever get a chance to get out in the field, do a quick cut for the client to look at before you leave and have them smile and say "Wow, that looks great!" I highly recommend you do. It's very satisfying and I appreciate Apple making that possibility a little easier for me.

By the way: At the risk of attracting further scorn from you, I should also mention that in the last few months I have transitioned from horribly expensive video cameras to purchasing and learning how to use several DSLRs. I am absolutely enamored by the images they produce, and after reverting back to the old film-production techniques I learned years ago, it is now my principal means of acquisition. I've even learned how to overcome the audio issues some DSLR detractors keep tossing up for discussion.

I'm anxious to see how this all plays together in FCP X. For three hundred bucks, it won't sting very much if it turns out to be a hinderance, rather than an effective tool to help me along the path I've chosen.

There. I'll climb down from my high horse now.

No need for a high horse here. I'm not saying it is useless at all but just not ready for prime time. I'm not really an elitist either. I'm ok with certain things and personally am a huge fan of what FCPX does bring to the table.

With that said however there are certain things pros need to be able to do and I don't see anything wrong with some of else discussing about how it isn't ready for primetime for many of us.

Perhaps the indy remark was a bit harsh but I meant no disrespect about it and was mainly referring to the latest sub culture around video production where everybody with a DSLR thinks they are the new Spielburg. I also use a DSLR these days and am considering selling off the rest of my video gear.

I do like where FCPX is going but it isn't there yet and we are basically moving from a solid platform to one not ready for primetime. I think many pros here would have been fine with this if FCS was still supported. It looks like no new editors will even be able to buy FCS anymore. So if you are a pro and already have it you may be fine to wait it out. If you are a new editor or company you may be stuck with a half finished product.

We also do not know when these updates are coming and if there will be a price. It is possible that things like XML and multicam may be add-on modules that pros have to buy. Lets face it not everybody needs the pro features which is why FCPX 1.0 doesn't have them yet. We all also thought the price seemed a bit low at $299.00 and perhaps there is good reason for that. If you take FCP 7 and remove all the pro stuff missing from FCPX then perhaps it would have also been as cheap. Maybe Apple's thought is to charge for the extra features that only some people still need to use such as XML, OMF and batch capture. Kind of makes sense to me in a way. For those who do shoot (indy and pros) file based material and just need a polished editor then they can get it for a much lower cost then forcing them to buy the entire beast.