Colour correction in 5.1.2
 

Hi there

I'm an Avid editor with almost no experience on FCP and I'm considering turning to the dark side (!) for a particular project. I have FCP 4.5 running on a G4 we use for admin but before we rush out and buy a new Mac Pro I'd be grateful if someone can answer a couple of questions on the colour corrector in 5.1.2:

1. Is there a built-in gamma control that lets you edit in a curves interface rather than sliders? Maybe it was there before and I was just too stupid to find it.

2. How well does the secondary colour correction perform?

Many thanks

Tony

No, not stock. You can run Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse inside FCP, but what you want is not a standard feature. Somebody else might have a plug as well.

I think pretty well, but understand if you put one 3-Way CC filter on to take care of primary, and then slap another 3-way with selection constraint (which is how you do secondary in FCP), you're not working in real time anymore. At least on my dual 2.0 G5. A current Mac Pro is a couple magnitudes fast than my machine though, it may do a lot more in RT.

1- No.

Nattress Film Effects has curves, although the interface is via sliders. nattress.com

There is also Final Touch SD or HD (FT HD is a lot more expensive), which gives you color correction that is more powerful than FCP or Avid. XML/EDL workflow is a pain, although this may change. FT is updated often, and I think they are working with Apple on this. EDL into FT actually gives you the flexibility to re-capture, which XML doesn't.

2- The secondary CC in FCP:
The quality is good.

Performance-wise, it is real-time until you blur the mask.

Thanks guys. I've checked out Color Finesse and I think that's the way to go because FT is off the budget radar. Lack of real-time playback isn't too much of an issue because I'm not under big time constraints on this project - rendering is an acceptable trade-off for the money saved over a Symphony Nitris!!!