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.