Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, and Compressor 4 Released as Downloads on Mac App Store
Apple unleashed several major updates to its professional video editing software suite this morning, featuring Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, and Compressor 4. Final Cut Pro X was rebuilt from the ground up and is said to reinvent video editing. Apple’s SVP Phil Schiller expresses his enthusiasm:
“Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro. We have shown it to many of the world’s best Pro editors, and their jaws have dropped.”
Many popular Hollywood movies have been edited in prior versions of Final Cut Pro, giving some serious clout to it’s abilities, a few include X-Men: Origins, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, 300, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, Where the Wild Things Are, Eat Pray Love, and True Grit.
Despite being a complete redesign with hoards of new features, the price of Final Cut Pro X and it’s component apps have actually dropped substantially, and they are all available as downloads through the Mac App Store:
Each new app release is already at the top of the Mac App Store “Bestsellers” list, indicating both enthusiasm and a significant pent up demand for Apple’s latest video editing package.
System Requirements are a bit stricter this time around, requiring Mac OS X 10.6.7 or newer, an Open-CL capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later, both must have at least 256MB of VRAM. Your Mac should also have at least 2GB of RAM, but 4GB (or more) is recommended. You can read more about the GPU requirements on Apple support.
Embedded below is a first-look walkthrough of Final Cut Pro X, for those interested.
The other side to this story is that Apple is continuing to push the Mac App Store as the primary distribution method of their software. This is also the case with the iLife and iWork suites, in addition to Mac OS X Lion, and presumably many more titles.
[…] Credits: Automatic Duck, jamieflinchbaugh.com, jogirl.com, and OSX Daily /* $299.99 Final Cut Pro Developer: Apple Categories: Video, Photography Supported Devices: […]
[…] recently released Final Cut Pro X hasn’t exactly received the warmest welcome by longtime Final Cut users, and now thanks to […]
Basically, if you’re a professional editor working in a professional environment – this is not for you.
If you’re a 5D or iPhone shooter, this is a major step up from iMovie, which seems to be the basis for this new consumer app. But Final Cut Pro this is not.
There are multiple pro features missing from this tool that make it unsuitable for a professional workflow. The inability to import projects from older Final Cut Pro versions, the lack of external display support, the dumbing down of color correction tools, the elimination of multi camera editing and worst of all, the complete lack of XML/EDL/OMF support makes this a consumer application with no hint of support for professional users.
Apple is facing a s**tstorm of negative PR over this. This is a marketing trainwreck.
All they had to do was say “this isn’t a pro app, because these vital features are missing, but will be added within x months – but here’s the direction we’re taking.” and they would have saved face.
What about the Final Cut Express line?
It was cut and rolled into this. There is a lot of mixed feedback about FCPX at the moment, if you are used to FCP7 it might be wise to stay on the sidelines until Apple has released an update or two.
I am staying well away as there is some really negative feedback in the App Store. It is being portrayed as IMovie +.
Shame as I fancied buying final cut pro.