Final Cut Pro X - My review

Rashaad_Sallie

Rashaad_Sallie

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Hi All

Today I got hold of Final Cut Pro X. I couldn't wait to fire this baby up, caress the new interface and start my video magic. With my 17" MacBook Pro, i5 2.53, 4GB Ram and a Seagate hybrid I was sure to rock the house. riiiiiiiight.

I was greeted with the new interface of what I'd seen before - cool, I thought. but then I decided to take it for a spin. Imported a 4 minute video (didnt want to overload her with a full HD 1080 60min clip, so a 4min 720 seemed appropriate). By the way, before starting FCP I restarted my Mac.

The clip imported and soon the background rendering started. Cool. I then added a transparent PNG, and then a PSD. Overlaid some effects and hell it started to slow down quickly. I thought maybe its the background rendering? Nope. Any open apps? Nope. Then what? Its turned out to be that the new Final Cut Pro X is just a load of .....

After 2 hours with only a 4min clip and 2 pics. I was lost, frustrated and couldn't believe how slow it had gone. The interface seemed fine at first but it became clunky and unusable. The effects are horribly slow. This is iMovie Pro and NOT Final Cut Pro.

Im sorry but I feel that Apple has made a disaster and they can see it. Many pro users are complaining as well. I for one am going right back to FCP 7 and Motion. People DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY on Final Cut Pro X !!!

To be more specific, here are my gripes:
1. Extremely slow
2. Clunky UI
3. Horrible timeline - stuff jumps all over the place
4. Too simplistically inclined
5. Cant open FCP 7 files
6. Slow effects
7. Background renderer re-renders too much - even when just a small piece of a clip changed.
8. Too much like iMovie and NOT an improvement on FCP
9. The Events manager is a disaster - too much iPhoto
10. No FC Server
11. Adding text and editing is horrible.
12. The effect manager panel cannot be moved (to a different screen)

Thats about it for now. I havent even done some Chroma keying, or colour corrections.

This is a huge disappointment.
 
I do agree it seems incomplete.It's a complete rewrite and 1.0 - it's not for old users of Final Cut, they must carry on using FCP7. It's for new users. The potential is there for it to develop but it will probably take 2-3 years.
 
It's also going to make a huge performance difference if you use a Mac Pro with a 5870 for OpenCL.
 
Synaesthesia said:
It's also going to make a huge performance difference if you use a Mac Pro with a 5870 for OpenCL.
Click to expand...

Ive used FCP 7 and Motion on a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and it was way faster than this. Not everyone is going to upgrade to a MacPro just for FCP and Apple knows that its used widely on MacBook Pro's. This is like the PC upgrade you needed for Vista.

Its really stupid move for Apple to take so long to "upgrade" FCP to this just for "new users". New users are happy to use iMovie of even FC Express. To be honest I think they are pushing too far with all this eye candy cool effects on the UI (Like Lion and iOS) and forgetting the proper usability. Apple has brilliant products and they dont need to be sugar candy coated for "new users".

Also do we have to wait another 2-3 years for a decent version of FCPX? Thats ridiculous! Adobe has a brilliant version of After Effects and hell they even improved Premier.

Apple should have just make the old FCP and made a few interface changes but NOT make one huge bloated ripoff of iMovie.
 
Florisjfk

I finished my second day with FCPx. Getting there.
I am really trying to like FCP x, I can see where it is going, it is fast.
Remember, Lion is going to make a difference according to Apple.
But I agree with all your gripes, Im on a 27" iMac i5.
My gripes,
that excuse of a COLOR TOOL! It is outright useless, none of my 13 years of coloring on MC, Media 100, Symphony, AE,
can be applied to this, its non intuitive, and just a completely unorginised lay-out for color correction!
Blending modes takes 3 clicks to apply, what was wrong with right click on a clip.
Unable to apply simple transitions to title clips!
Media management! I want to choose where to put footage, certainly not the default location, MY INTERNAL ROOT DRIVE!
No multiple timeline accessible at any one time!
No multicam!
No tape support, printing to tape is impossible, and digitising with control, gone!
Forget about beta, or Digibeta, wont work.
This stupid magnetic timeline is an nuisance! Its just a mess, your clip go everywhere while you want to insert it at a certain point!
I am sorry, to me there is no professional workflow, it is gone!
There are loads more, I need to go work now! Ill stop this rant.

Advise:
Dont buy it now, because apparently, "we should excuse Apple for not including all the essential functions in the first version" .
I am sorry! Do I miss something here!? I paid R2100 for a bloody BETA release!
Apple, if it was not ready, WHY RELEASE iMOVIE PRO?!
 
@Florisjfk : I hear loud and clear. The professionalism is just gone. Fine, maybe Apple will be releasing updates but did they really need to linit so much on an "update" to Final Cut Pro?. I think this is where Final Cut Express should have gone to.

I decided to get Motion as well (hell yeah if I'm gonna pay for software i cant try before buying - wink wink). I haven't given that a try but my review on that will come soon. I also gave FCPX a second try and tried to look on the positive side. man was that difficult. I terribly hate the magnetic timeline. I want TOTAL control over my timeline - its mine and not some magnets.

Anyway will be good to hear what others think?

PS: don't forget to checkout my new Apple blog coming soon.
 
the end of an era

there is so much out there about how this is the death knell for pro apps and how it will have a major impact on the post-production industry. read my take on it here:
http://voltaire.co.za/Blog/Entries/2011/6/28_apple_abandons_pro_apps.html

there is also a petition for apple to release fcs3 source code to a third party developer so that professionals don't have to put up with what is being called imovie pro.
http://www.petitiononline.com/finalcut/petition.html

in an unprecedented move (as far as i can remember), apple have offered a refund to those who have paid for fcp x and don't want it. this, to me, says that they have no intention to change the app to suit professionals, but rather keep it as is for the prosumer market, which is clearly more profitable that the pro market, who stuck with apple through the lean years...

sigh...
 
Apple has also now offered a very lame FAQ on their site answering the complaints of many. Apple says that you can still use FCP 7 if you want but they have not answered the question that you cannot buy more volume licenses for FCP7. So, by adding new machines and users you will eventually be forced to buy FCPX. The support for FCP7 will also eventually stop as developers start upgrading their plugins for 64bit. Apple knows that FCP7 will eventually fade away and those who complained about FCPX now will have no choice because Apple is also putting out this feeling that FCPX will eventually turn out to be the PRO App that we all have been waiting for.
 
:D

[video=youtube;LxKYuF9pENQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=LxKYuF9pENQ[/video]
 
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