-
Now Apple don’t love us where shall we go.
OK, first I should outline why I think myself, and lots of other professional editors, are looking to leave the Church of Apple.
FCPx is not yet ready for ‘professional’ use (no multi-cam, EDL …, lets not have this discussion again) and we don’t know when/if it will be. No problem, we will keep using FCP 7 and see what happens, good plan but this won’t work. Apple have taken FCP 7 off the market so we cant buy extra seats so and production house who are not lunatics will be looking elsewhere (apple are basically telling everyone they cant grow there business). Add to that the lack of an upgrade path (i.e. cant load old projects) and apple are sending a HUGE message to professional editors, we don’t love/need you anymore.
So where are people thinking of going. Avid, Premier, Vegas…..
Would rather not this turn into a FXP vs the world flame ware so if you are happy with FCP and not thinking of moving best to keep stum;).
Ben
—
Ben Edwards – Freelance Filmmaker
https://www.funkytwig.com -
5 Replies
-
I took up the Avid offer, but then I used Avid for a long time before taking up FCP as well, so it was more a case of me getting back up to date with Avid than making a big switch.
TBH, where I go next will depend on where (a) my clients and (b) the facilities go. I won’t make a big switch until they do and at the moment it’s still Avid and FCP7 that are doing the work.
-
facing this.
[Ben Edwards] “Avid, Premier, Vegas”
Got copy of Avid 5.5. How to book on way. Tried this last summer at v3 and found the interface unmac like or at least so different than FC that it felt uncomfortable. Mostly for me this was about how it interacted with the Mac OS. In other words, the browser window part of the program. Granted, media management is exactly where it shines compared to FCP 7. Two versions later and Avid is more open in their support and I figure the community of users will grow way beyond the broadcast pro market. Also, as unfamiliar as it felt, it was very solid and powerful.
For education, AVID offers ed prices and 4 years of free upgrades. The reason this matters beyond educators like myself — if an app becomes more popular at film schools this will grow its user base.
PP is the most like FC and many switchers feel it is basically FCP 8. Some say they tried and it’s a FC pretender, but I’m not clear where it lacks. Would love to hear details. Adobe is obviously trying to grow in this market quickly and they already have standards like photoshop and after effects.
I don’t think you can loose with either one. I would say if you want the least painful transition go with PP. If you do a lot of broadcast work go with AVID.
OFF TOPIC: Meantime we’ll see how FC X evolves. Maybe if they add multicam and alphabet exports and imports and thunderbolt/lightspeed monitors and raids are common and the cloud dominates distribution and Apple releases FC X Color, FC X will take its place among pro apps.
OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
-
“PP is the most like FC and many switchers feel it is basically FCP 8. Some say they tried and it’s a FC pretender, but I’m not clear where it lacks. Would love to hear details. Adobe is obviously trying to grow in this market quickly and they already have standards like photoshop and after effects.”
Interestingly when FCP 1 came out to me it looked like it took the best bits from Avid and Premier so calling PP a premier pretender is ignoring the history.
“OFF TOPIC: Meantime we’ll see how FC X evolves. Maybe if they add multicam and alphabet exports and imports and thunderbolt/lightspeed monitors and raids are common and the cloud dominates distribution and Apple releases FC X Color, FC X will take its place among pro apps.”
But the damage is done, the majority of editors I have come across (and some looking after very large estates) are using language unfit for this forum to describe what Apple should do. Interesting as before FCPx a lot of them worshipped at the alter of Mr Jobs. The pain Apple have caused will take a long time to dull.
Ben
—
Ben Edwards – Freelance Filmmaker
https://www.funkytwig.com -
Yes this is the second time it’s happened to me. I was a dedicated Liquid Siver user until Pinnacle took it over and then Avid killed it.
See the writing on the wall then was what got me into FCP. I must admit I was never much of a fan and have experimented with all (bar Avid!) alternatives since starting with FCP4.5.
The best of the bunch from my perspcetive is Edius, which even on the Mac under bootcamp flies in the face of FCP – See the YouTube comparison.
It’s not quite as fully featured as Prem but has much better native transitions and bags of realtime.
Alan (uk)
FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP -
I agree on the Edius recommendation. I’ve been playing with Premiere and it seems like a straight upgrade from Final Cut. Edius is something else. It’s super fast, no waiting to render and just downright fun to play with.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up