update

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Bill:

You’re right, I didn’t mean to misrepresent X for people who come to the forum un-initiated. Sorry about the cloudiness of the word-cloud.

We have discussed using X with high school students in the past. This IS a low-end application of the app, in that they don’t introduce pro cameras and don’t output to an audio team, an effects group and so on. And it is usually cheap, in that the school has cheap cameras, and most students like to work with phones and cameras they have at home. And my discussion was about how THAT whole set-up works well with inexpensive USB 3 pocket drives, which many students happen to have access to.

In other words, these kids needn’t be intimidated by endless web forums on Canon C300s and C500s, $20K zoom lenses, Creative Suites, Avids, Resolve and Thunderbolt RAID. In fact, they can start out with the family DSLR or their phone, a $300 pro editing app, a laptop and a USB3 drive … and get professional-looking results.

But I NEVER meant to suggest X should exist only in that space. I would never denigrate X. It is the full-on pro app we all love. It is my favorite and only working NLE for pro documentary work.

Many students have seen and used iMovie, and can’t wait to get away from it – the free app for “my Dad’s home movies.” They all want to work in FCPX BECAUSE of their perception it IS a pro app. Students come back from Christmas proudly showing off the copy of FCPX they received as a gift, now installed on their laptops, so they can shoot and edit away from class and really make progress.

I am happy to be giving them a relatively painless entry into an app that can take them all the way to professional work, if they so desire.

Speaking to the forum topic “FCPX or Not” — I love X for the robust, pro app that will handle 4K, SAN, broadcast and feature work … but can also work out of the box, out of a back-pack, with a friendly interface and structure that allows future filmmakers to dive in and create, from day one.

I tell them that unlike iMovie, they won’t grow out of X, they will grow up and IN to its full potential.

Doug D

[Steve Connor]

Doug, I think most people understood what you were saying and it wasn’t a classification of FCPX as a low end tool.

Steve Connor

There’s nothing we can’t argue about on the FCPX COW Forum

[Bret Williams]

My little toshiba usb3 drive reads 110mb/sec. Most of my others are in the 60-80mb/sec range. 110/mb sec is in the same territory as my esata graid, and better than fw800 easily. It wasn’t that long ago we were editing DVCproHD 720p24 off FW400/800 and thought that was awesome.

[Kevin Rag]

Hi Jeremy. Just curious, what USB3 drive are you using for your edits?

Kannan Raghavan
The Big Toad Films Pte. Ltd.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I have an OWC enclosure with a combination of Seagate and Western Digital drives.

Usb3, FireWire 800, and esata all in one swappable rig.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

DITs in my area use these a lot and have had great success with them in the field, and they connect to all manner of machine.

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Cool. I’ve been using GRaid Mini with Tbolt-to-FW adapter and doing alright, but interested in specific Toshiba drive you’re using. Pocket-type drive or larger?

Doug D

[Bret Williams]

Cheap little plastic 500gb usb3 drive from costco. One day I ran it and a bunch of other drives through bmds speed test app and it consistently got 100-110. Not sure if I’d do any editing on it for long. Not sure about the durability of those things. But much faster than even my Lacie rugged 1tb usb3/esata model, or the WD or g drive. I found these old screen shots. I kept them because I remember how much of a difference the little toshiba was. And it was like 80 bucks or something a year ago. The other drives were pretty consistently less as you see. Fluke maybe?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Here’s what I am getting from the OWC enclosure. They also make smaller 2.5″ versions as well.

(image)

Jeremy

[Bret Williams]

Here’s the NewerTech Guardian USB 3 setup as mirrored. So it’s really just a single USB 3 drive. I’ve seen it get 170 before it was now half full. I’ve got 2 Seagate 3TB drives inside. Not their high end ones. I just use this enclosure to for iPhoto, iTunes, and project archives. I’m on a late 2012 iMac with all the upgrades and 32gigs. This enclosure has everything but thunderbolt. It has FW800, FW400, eSATA and USB 3. Love it. Never a problem.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I think we can all agree that USB3 is doing pretty well!