OK, I took the plunge and tried FCP-X to see for myself what it’s like, despite all the negative comments about it I though I would give it the benefit of doubt and try it for myself..
It’s very fast, the way you scrub through clips in the bins is impressive and the built in filters are a good start. I also note that decklink now have drivers for most of their cards so HDSDi out is now available, certainly things are strating to come together with FCP-X.
BUT… I wanted to add a simple colour correction to a clip, no problem with that using the colour board, but then I tried to add a keyframe so the correction would change slightly of the duration of the clip. Simple, basic stuff…. But you can’t. You can’t keyframe the majority of FCP-X’s effects, only the motion effects and a couple of others. This is such a simple, fundamental thing that I take for-granted with every other pro edit package. It’s not an advanced feature and yet it’s completely missing. FCP-X is not ready for me yet, too much stuff missing to make it useful as my NLE of choice. If I can’t keyframe effects then for me this is not a “Pro” edit package, it is a consumer product. Perhaps over time it will mature and things like this will get added. But I have on-going projects and who knows how long it will take to get FCP-X up to speed, it could be a year or more. So I either stick with now somewhat long in the tooth FCS or jump ship to Premiere CS5.5 which looks better and better by the day or maybe leave the Mac platform altogether and go with Vegas or Edius. Of course Avid is still an option too.
I have to say Alister, I was so shocked and annoyed – after waiting this long Apple come out with that……?
I’m sorry Apple but you’ve made long enough already.
I switched from Premier Pro to FCP more than a year ago as nobody was really using Adobe at the time so I still have the Adobe tools to fall back on, however this time I decided to try Avid’s €999 cross grade promotion to Media Composer 5.5 – sorry Apple but I’m not going to play another waiting game for god know’s how long.
So far I’m very happy with Media Composer 5.5 – and at least I know they are unlikely to abandon their professional market because of other priorities like Apple seem to have done.
Maybe in the future as you say FCP-X will be a professional application again but why should we wait when there are other really good choices out there now?
Dear Alister,
I’m not going to start a FCPX good/bad type of discussion here your blog is way to valuable for that.
I would however like to thank you for mentioning Edius. I have a hard time explaining to people it is a good professional alternative for the more expensive NLE’s. I would never tell people to leave their MAC behind if they like working with it. But for those of you who do contemplate switching (back) to windows definitively check out Edius.
Kind regards
Remco
(p.s. I have no affiliation with Edius or its producers, just really happy with what the program does for me.)
I agree that Edius is a very competent package and should be considered by anyone looking for a new system.
Time will tell. Maybe FCP-X will eventually become a “pro” application, but I’m working on projects right now, so can’t afford to wait.
I have Media Composer, but I find the Adobe toolset works better for me. It may be that I just continue with FCP7 for now.
I’m going to get some more Ram for my 8 core PC and see how that runs CS5 with a fast NVIDIA card.
Alister, you should be using Edius hands down with all that XDCAM footage – it eats LONG GOP MPEG-2 for breakfast and is the fastest native AVCHD NLE ever. If you have not tried ver 6.03 then give it a go today – you wont go back!
I’m not ready to give up my Mac’s yet. I do hear nothing but good things about Edius, but because many of the projects I work on are collaborative I need to have one of the “common” NLE’s, by which I mean FCP, Avid or CS5.
Vegas is also very good, but again does not have the kind of large install base that the big 3 have.
As a matter of fact there is a keyframe editor in Final Cut Pro X, for effects as well. It is in the same place as the keyframe editor for transform crop and distort. You get to it by selecting show video animation in the clip menu after selecting a clip in the timeline. The effects are listed at the top of the blue box and you expand the keyframe graph for each entry by clicking the little icon that looks like an envelope.
I’m aware of that, but you can’t keyframe the color board and many of the basic effects. Simple things that would normally be keyframable.