Does FCS hold a candle to Adobe anymore?

[Michael Gissing]

I haven’t had any up close with CS4 or had a good look at CS5 but do you color grade and how does a program like Color compare to CS5 offerings?

I mostly grade/online so I chose FCP because it was not only the most common source of projects but also having grading tools like Color have kept me in the business of broadcast finishing where I am competing with DaVinci standards of grading. Just how well do projects from AVID or FCP translate into CS5?

Can you point out what makes you want to switch to CS5 other than FCP has not made huge improvements since FCS2 was released. What is CS5 doing that is a big improvement on FCS3.

[Illya Laney]

I’m not sure what market you work in but if I told any clients I was editing and grading with Premiere, they would look at me and ask “what the hell is that? I don’t have that installed on my laptop.” Anyone else I work with would just laugh at me. Too many people have invested money into Avid and FCP(and the Color workflow) already. Besides, what’s keeping you from using both Premiere and FCP at your studio?

Just because Apple hasn’t had any amazing announcements about FCP at NAB doesn’t mean that they won’t have any announcements in the near future.

Motion Design, Color, Editing
Simulated Wood Grain Cabinet Inc.
Bunim-Murray Productions

[David Roth weiss]

[Christopher Hill] “I’m wondering why I should stick with FCS when Adobe’s CS5 suite seems to trump it in every category.”

Have you ever actually tried to accomplish anything in Premiere?

Have you ever actually tried to accomplish anything with Adobe Media Encoder?

Has any client ever actually asked you to do any work for them with Premiere?

If your answer is no to two or more of the questions above, then there’s your answer.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Rafael Amador]

[Christopher Hill] “Can anyone point out why I should stick with FCS?”
I can’t tell you why should you stay in FC.
I can tell you why I will stay in FC.
I’m a video editor,and FCS (with few extras) gives me all the tools that I need.
I’m in this business since more than 25 years and I’ve learnt of being cautious when a new “superstar” arrives.
I’m not close at all to any option better than FC (I would get Smoke if I would think is the tool that suits me), but I’ve been working with FC since v2.5 and I don’t gonna start to shake because it seems that, after 16 or 17 years of development, at last PP had catch up with FC.
What is clear is that now is the time for Apple to move.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Ernie Santella]

Of the fellow pro editors I know that have tested Premier, none have said they want to switch. Nuff said.

[Arc Nevada]

The choice is yours. The CS5 Master Collection can do everything FCS can do and more. The integration of the CS 4 products can not be beat in my opinion.

[Michael Gissing]

[arc nevada] “The CS5 Master Collection can do everything FCS can do and more”

A tractor can do everything my car can do plus more. I can build a house with a swiss army knife, but I would rather use a power tool or ten. The real question is how well it does each task. Can any CS5 fans tell us what it does better and how?

[Christopher Hill]

@Michael Gissing – I honestly haven’t had much experience with Premiere since their CS2 offering and I wasn’t unimpressed back then, but industry standards at the time drove me to Final Cut which I’ve been using for the last 4 years exclusively. Our studio is very small and at the moment we don’t do any professional color-grading outside of Final Cut.

The things that intrigue me about the new CS5 are the ability to work with Final Cut projects in Premiere without any re-rendering or converting as well as Premiere’s ability to work with a wide variety of tapeless workflows natively and mixing and matching different formats in the same timeline without rendering. But the biggest draw as I mentioned is Adobe’s proven track-record of seamless round-tripping between it’s programs.

@Illya & David- The audience and client base we serve is such that they probably wouldn’t know or care if we were editing content in Avid, Premiere or Final Cut. Not to say that our quality is sub-standard or unprofessional but that our clientele is not of the crowd that would notice such a difference nor bring us content specific to one platform. We have tested media encoder in the past in our workflow and while Compressor works better for us at current, we weren’t unimpressed with the results.

@Rafael – Like you, I think it is time for Apple to get it’s act together. It’s just my opinion but I feel as though the many complaints that have been lodged against FCP by it’s user base in the past have gone largely unaddressed. I’m hoping that they have some stunning announcements coming, but I’m not holding my breath.

All in all, thank you everyone for your responses. Some have been enlightening. I’m hoping that there are some fellow editors out there who have had their hands on a Beta or RC version of CS5 to offer some insight. My intent wasn’t to start a flame war or intentionally “dog” on FCS but to ask a serious question and get some serious answers.

Thanks

Chris Hill

[Eric Addison]

What does PPro CS5 have that FCP doesn’t – Mercury Playback Engine. See it work, then tell me that PPro hasn’t gained ground on(or passed) FCP.

PPro works great for me – it’s my goto NLE, and it’s never let me down.

Quick story from this past weekend – on a shoot with my EX3. Over lunch, the client asked to see the footage. I pulled the SxS card, put it into my laptop, and without even copying the footage from the card, I cut together the first four scenes in PPro and showed him this “rough cut”. It played back smooth with no problems – again, all playing native right from the SxS card…sorry – can’t do that in FCP.

FCS has some great features, is dependable, and it has large market share. But I just got back from NAB, and a LOT of people were talking about PPro CS5. Before anyone just writes it off, you should really check it out – it’s really amazing.

—Eric
Owner | 100 ACRE FILMS
https://www.100acrefilms.com

[Walter Biscardi]

With $995 Resolve the advantage of Color is negated. I\’m going to look at what I\’ve been told are amazing rotoscope tools on after effects tomorrow.

As for convincing you to stay on a platform, that\’s not our job. You need to choose what is right for your company, your market and your clientele. For me this will be adding one license of resolve and possibly one license of Avid Media Composer 5 though I have to learn more about interoperability with FCP. But I\’m still going to have 10 or more FCP workstations in the new facilty as the workhorse edit systems.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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