Final Cut Pro X released
Apple released it’s totally rewritten version of Final Cut Pro this week and I have to say that I don’t think I’ve seen a release from Apple that has been met with such disappointment and public dismay before.
I’m not going to go in to too many details about the new release here as I simply don’t have enough time today so if you’re not keeping up with the news I highly recommend the following articles which give a really good run-down of the current state of play.
Firstly, have a read through David Pogues post on the New York Times website. Mr Pogue does a great job of highlighting many professional editors complaints about the new software and attempts to answer these complaints, partly in defence of apple.
Unfortunately I don’t think mr Pogue initially grasped the importance of some of these complaints from professional FCP users and I highly recommend reading through the comments below his post.
You may also want to read through the following post by Richard Harrington where I think Mr Harrington does an excellent job of answering Mr Pogue’s comments from a Professional Editors point of view.
David Pogue posted again on the subject today and seems to have taken on board a lot of what his readers have posted and summed up the situation very well indeed.
Having read through hundreds of comments from professionals, both civil and uncivil, I’m now convinced: Final Cut Pro X may indeed be ready for the future. But for professional video editors, it’s not yet ready for the present.
My thoughts
For now I’m not even going to bother purchasing FCPX. The lack of multicamera support and the iMovie-esque way in which the media and projects are handled are simply not going to work for me. Even if I do enjoy using it I couldn’t make it part of my workflow so for now I’ll stick with the Adobe suite.
The fact that apple have removed the Final Cut Studio suite from their retail list and that this new software doesn’t allow production houses to open projects from previous versions says a lot to me.
The name ‘Final Cut Pro’ has earned an enormous reputation and a lot of respect over the last few years, I expect that alone will convince many an iMovie user to splash out and upgrade to FCPX.
Honestly though, I don’t think this new software really deserves the ‘Pro’ in it’s name, at least not yet!
