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Lets Go Back to How Much Is FCS Worth?
Let’s assume for a moment that you are purchasing Final Cut Studio for the very first time. 2005 was a banner year for Apple video. First time they put everything in one box, essentially.
Final Cut Pro 5 – $999 DVD Studio Pro 4 – $499 Motion – $299 Soundtrack Pro – $299
Cineam Tools – (cost $999 before included with FCP 4) Compressor (never sold but nearest competition was Cleaner – $599. So with Final Cut Studio (1) you got a total of $2096 worth of applications (not including any value for Cinema Tools or Compressor) for $1299.Now since I first bought Final Cut Pro 3 ($999), I got it (FCS-1) for $499, because I purchased Final Cut Pro 4 UG ($499) DVD Studio Pro 1.5 for $999 and Motion for $299 that made me equal to the Production Suite; which is the standard upgrade price to date. So ,that cost me a total of $1797 and I was very happy to get Final Cut Studio (1) for $499.
Now I am constantly amazed at what Apple gives with each new upgrade to Final Cut Pro and Studio. Let’s see – Finally Mixed codecs on one timeline – value (more than a mastercard)- new P2 ingest interface (hope it works well) – Shake tools integrate into FCP 6 – Motion with 3D capabilities – SoundTrack with 5.1 mixing capabilities – COLOR (I believe the former version of Final Touch was $25,000 – and almost everything I could want for DVD authoring (well still no definitave answer on Bluray or HD-DVD support)
Value to me this time, maybe $5,000 and that is a cheap evaluation. Why? because time is money and anything that imrpoves workflow is money well spent.
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5 Replies
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I think the value you have put on it is exactly right if not more!
To think that similar (not exactly the same) features in an AVID environment are almost 4 times the price, the question is not how cheap Apple can make it but rather how expensive can they make AVID.
They really have struck a blow to the mid range editor market and it really is going to hurt AVIDs sales.
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Don’t forget Motion inside FCP 6. That is going to be awesome! I have already ordered FCS 2!
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Exactly right. I do believe that for the negligible price of $1699 AUS$ the software doesn’t just entice people, it brings their economic principle into perspective. Post Houses and studios ultimately are run my the almighty dollar….if there is an oppotunity to save money in the software area then there is more money to spend on decent storage, or a good I/O. AVID currently has no comeback to this except for the prestige and legacy that they have in the industry.
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I’ll just add this. THere is now an installed user base of 800,000. That is almost 1 million sold versions of FCP. I’d like to know how many avids are still kicking around. The sheer numbers of users will end up making it harder to find people to edit on an avid. Eventually, it will be even more difficult to find someone who has heard of one.
BetaMax might hae been better than VHS. But the user base won. Avid has not moved rapidly enough and frankly, the diversity of Apple has allowed them to pool the resources to attack this market very aggressively.
I hope they go after pro tools this hard next. It’s interesting that they added OMF support to Soundtrack, though I am surprised it’s not a version of XML. But this means I could do a decent 5.1 mix in Soundtrack fram an AVID omf.
Hmmm. Just where might they take logic the next time the overhaul that.
David
Peace and Love 🙂
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Another thing to consider is the value of what Apple’s toolbox replaced? In our case, a $25,000 Media 100 system and an annual upgrade-tech support fee of $2,000.
If we had purchased Avid back in 1996 instead of Media 100, we would still be w-a-y ahead economically for converting to FCP in 2001 or so.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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