Is FCS3 worth $300 to upgrade?

[Dave Johnson]

Just this morn, my email subscription to Millimeter mag dropped me a link to the is review that begins to address that question:

https://digitalcontentproducer.com/desktoppost/depth/final_cut_pro_7_723/?smte=wr

[Timothy Auld]

For me just having markers that will ripple with the timeline is worth the $300.

bigpine

[Michael Sacci]

Oh, I forgot about that, not a feature I would pay for but one that will be much appreciated.

[Eli Mavros]

I’m with you on the markers…color coding! And don’t forget the new speed tool, something that fcp has needed to address for a long time in my opinion. Can’t wait to get it!

-Eli

Eli Mavros

[Elijah Lynn]

[Michael Sacci] “Okay how many single features are worth $300

Background Export, I always encode from a FCP sequence with Compressor!
MultiCam Seq. to Color, most of my major work is Concerts!
P2 and AVCIntra Playback (I just you set compression to ProRes like with R3D clips)
New ProRes versions
Faster Optical Flow Rendering

Is it worth it HELL YEAH!

Is there room for improvement, sure, but that is what FCS4 is all about, let the rumor mills start again.”

+1

AVCHD native editing makes it worth while for me! I am upgrading as soon as I get authorization 🙂

EDIT: Looks like I misread Apple’s marketing material. No native AVCHD editing, :(. That sucks. Guess I won’t be so jumpy to buy the upgrade.

No multi-core support either. 🙁

Lot’s of other cool stuff including ProRes with Alpha but I really hope they support native AVCHD someday.

[Erik Lindahl]

I’m quite disappointed this is all Apple could “cook up” after 2 years of development.

– The new “speed tools” in FCP is to be honest a joke. The rendering quality is so poor that no one in their right mind will use it. We are still forced with clumbersume round-trips to After Effects, Motion or Shake.

– It’s very nice they develop the ProRes codec but it’s about time they look into Uncompressed alternatives (why can’t we get a 4:4:4:4 uncompressed workflow?). Where is a higher than 8-bit RGB workflow or some RT-effects working with uncompressed RGB files? Or perhaps an uncompressed format that has alpha-channel support?

– Get on the multi-core wagon already! Give us true background EVERYTHING (Rendering, Importing, Exporting and Processing of effects)

– Where is the Shake replacement? No, Motion is not the answer.

– I swear we’ll still be sitting with the normal odd-ball rendering bugs and issues since Apple mentions nothing of an improved rendering engine.

Seeing we waiting for this long I thought Final Cut Pro 7 would be THE upgrade with Snow Leopard around the corner. Now we get last years innovation…

Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Communication
————————

[Russell Lasson]

[Erik Lindahl] “- The new “speed tools” in FCP is to be honest a joke. The rendering quality is so poor that no one in their right mind will use it. We are still forced with clumbersume round-trips to After Effects, Motion or Shake. “

I might suggest that FCP is an editing program and not a Special Effects program like the three other programs you mention. I’d like to see those programs to a trim edit.

[Erik Lindahl] “- It’s very nice they develop the ProRes codec but it’s about time they look into Uncompressed alternatives (why can’t we get a 4:4:4:4 uncompressed workflow?). Where is a higher than 8-bit RGB workflow or some RT-effects working with uncompressed RGB files? Or perhaps an uncompressed format that has alpha-channel support?
“

The 8-bit RGB limitation has likely been addressed as the ProRes 444444444 codec is a 12-bit RGB or YUV codec. Get that? 12-bit! How cool is that. I’ll take 12-bit and lossless at a sixth of the size over a 10-bit uncompressed codec anyday.

[Erik Lindahl] “- Get on the multi-core wagon already! Give us true background EVERYTHING (Rendering, Importing, Exporting and Processing of effects) “

Background exporting through Compressor is a great step. I do agree that the more the background stuff the better though:)

[Erik Lindahl] “- Where is the Shake replacement? No, Motion is not the answer. “

I wonder the same thing, but I’m not a compositor/FX guru so I don’t lose sleep over it. Sounds like many companies are moving to NUKE.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net

[Michael Sacci]

[Russell Lasson] “ProRes 444444444 codec”
there sure are a lot of 4s in there!

[Russell Lasson]

[Michael Sacci] “[Russell Lasson] “ProRes 444444444 codec”
there sure are a lot of 4s in there! “

After saying “four” three times, I forget how how many times I’ve said it. I just keep going until it feels right to stop.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net

[Rafael Amador]

[Elijah Lynn] “No multi-core support either. 🙁 “
The tests in the “Prores White Papers” show that FC7 is able to use the 8 cores when installed on Snow Leopard.
They made the test with a pre-release of the next system.
Cheers,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com