[Al Bergstein]

You guys all missed the best reason to upgrade to PRO. There is no support for RAID in HOME versions. I know, because I just dealt with this TODAY. I installed an OWC dual drive enclosure and it would not allow me to create a RAID 1 on it. I did a lot of checking on the Net, and yes, it’s true. You need PRO or Ultimate to get support for RAID. I upgraded the system, and it allowed me to create a RAID.

So buy the PRO version, you’ll need it sooner or later.

I now have a very quiet and fast RAID 1 array, and am presently moving all raw footage onto it. Windows 7 is great. Now if we can only get Vegas to adopt the Mercury engine, I’ll have no reason to move to Premier.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I’ve been working a lot with multitrack “takes” in Vegas lately, and unfortunately agree with Stephen, that keeping the takes grouped like you describe leads to problems,like you describe, or worse. I can repeatedly create a crash in Vegas 10.d when I end up getting part of a take show up in front of another (though quite how it did that I can’t for the life of me understand, I did not make it do that). When I try to slide the take back into ‘place’ to the right, let’s say, it crashes Vegas. When I ungroup the multicam project, into the way that Stephen describes, I can work without crashes. My guess is that Multicam is buggy. It’s so bad, and Stephen’s way is so labor intensive, that I have switched back to FCP to do my multicam projects this week, where I can work without crashes in the stacked way that you describe Stuart. I’ve decided that this is just a limitation of Vegas at this point. A place where it leaves off and a competing product picks up. I’d love someone to tell me the secret here. I hate having to move content and transcode, but even with transcoding, I save time on the multicam edits.

A wild card in my setup is that I’m working with different footage, AVCHD, Canon 7D H264 MOV files, Canon mxf files. I even tried transcoding some of the clips using Cineform, but it didn’t fix the problem. I’m lucky I have an alternative tool to switch to, but wish it weren’t necessary.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Thanks John, that makes it easier to understand. Glad it got you that far, though it obviously had issues. Glad you liked it!

Jim, you know, being critical of a product upgrade to a product that I (we all) paid thousands of dollars to implement what with add ons, hardware upgrades, etc. is not meaning that I have some axe to grind with Apple. This product is what I base my business on. This is all about whether and when I upgrade to this new toolset. For now, it’s just something I’m watching from afar. And yes, I’m critical that I can’t open my existing products in it, for example. Maybe someday I’ll feel like paying Apple to learn the new product. For now, I have a tool that does what I need, albeit it slowly (read transcode, etc.). I’ll make my decisions to stay with FCP based on business decisions, like not having to waste time transcoding, which I don’t in competing products (and now I don’t have to in the new FCPX, that’s goodness.). Can my third party add ons work, like Boris or? Since I can’t edit in FCPX and then open that file in FCP to run my 32 bit add on apps (like I can with Vegas, for example). So nothing personal. No flame here… It’s just business decisions…

It was just a week or so ago when many people here were saying, “stop the nay saying, (and worse thoughts than that), you just wait’. Well, I did. And to now say, “well it’s just a V1 product of a new app” is really quite lame. It’s not a V1. It’s X (G). It has a history. A huge user base, given what Larry found out when his servers crashed this morning with over a million hits. There are obviously some great features implemented here, but it’s not baked yet for many of us. And there is Adobe and Avid on their heels, just wanting our (my) business. Let’s hope the upgrades come fast and furious.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

It’s a beta 1 of a totally new product. 64 bit rewrites often can have this problem. Unfortunately, they didn’t market it that way. I think there will be a lot of people like me, who use both platforms, that simply freeze their Apple systems until this sorts itself out, or jump to Adobe on Apple. As for me, I ordered my Dell XPS 15z today, as I assume that I will be migrating to Windows in it’s entirety after this, either to a total Vegas world, or a mix of Vegas and Adobe. It’s a good time to sell my MacBook Pro (older version with hard drive upgrade, but still 32 bit). But I see no benefit other than Thunderbolt (which I can achieve a close proximity in USB 3) in me continuing to pay Apple for high end product, when Vegas has worked very well for much of what I do, and Adobe has the 3rd party add ons that the Pros tell me I need, such as Boris Red, and other high end hardware and software add ons. I bought my state of the art Dell laptop today for hundreds of dollars less than a comparable Apple laptop. I was waiting on FCPX to see which way to go. Now it’s clear. Over, and out.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I’ve just used this on my first shoot, and am already plotting a V2. It did work great! But, I would like to add a second tray, below the first, for my Audio Technica wireless receiver. And a better mount to make it a side mount, rather than a shelf. I like the shelf idea, just worried whether it’s as useful as a vertical design. Having the Zoom up at my shooting height was really useful. I could watch the levels on the recorder and decide what I was going to do with the Mixpre.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

It’s clear that the only choices right now is to hold tight (or abandon ship). Gary A. clearly states that there is a core to this application that promises much more. The problem is that it was shipped prematurely, or it should have been long ago told to us that this is a new direction, and that you should stay put except for the chosen, given it’s base of professional users. I went through the programming hell of Windows .NET back in the early part of the last decade, it was very similar. A beta product that was launched early. But MS kept making it better, I think (G).

So I think that the only choices here are for those of you who make a living off of being the experts at FCP, you need to pay Apple to buy the product and learn the current version, teach us all the great few things that it offers, and the rest of us will either wait for some semblence of a professional product, and pay you in the future for your expertise, which is a natural thing to do (heck lots of people are still using Windows XP with Office 2000 or more to the point, tape based cameras!), or we will abandon ship and head over to one of the competing products.

This is about tools folks, not religious artifacts. FCP is not the Shroud of Turin. I’m very happy with the current version, when I’m not using a competing product to save time for low budget jobs in avoiding transcoding time. I have no need to pay Apple $300+ to buy a product today that can’t even open my previous version projects! Heck, even Vegas can do that! (G).

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

John, would be interested in hearing why FCPX paid for itself today. If you mean that you didn’t need to transcode, sheesh, those of us using other NLE’s along with FCP have had that luxury for months now. If there’s something more interesting than that in your post, please enlighten us.

With what little I’ve read so far, mainly Gary Adcocks’ very partial first part of a review, it’s clear that I’m going to stay put for now, and let Apple prove that it’s really going to bring out a viable option to what I already have. Some of the workflow changes are very nice, but to give up what I’ve already built for those would mean that I would have to seriously consider Adobe instead.

This board trashed me a while ago, along with others, for even questioning whether Apple was rolling out the right information at the WWDC. Now, Gary’s post clearly states that we were right in asking those questions. He states that FCP 3rd party devs were shunned at WWDC. From the lack of reports, I assumed as much.

I don’t want to be an apologist for Apple, nor do I want to be a blind fanboy. I am a video producer and an editor, FCP is a tool, and though while not at the level of a Gary or other top flight pro, I have considerable investment in Apple, given my business volume and today’s release did nothing to make me want to further that investment. I am willing and waiting to be convinced otherwise. In the meantime, I am not investing one more dime in Apple technology.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I use an xf305 and can get pretty good dof from it, by controlling aperture with nb filters, but for really deep dof in wide angle, i switch to a 7d. Colors aren’t as good, and it doesnt hold up to grading as well as the xf, but it’s ok. I find both have their special strengths uses, like any tool.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Kelly & nigel make great points. I use both, but find thatfor the kind of shooting you want to do, start with a camcorder. A high end consumer model like the panasonic tm900 or canon with dual sd card slots and built in hard drive (both cost between $1k and $1500 fully kitted out,) are probably the best bets. You can add external mics, headphone jack input, and their picture quality is very good.

Overheating is not a problem on my 7d but was on my canon t2i. I think it has to do with battery placement. I’ve shot all day with my 7d with no overheating. A friend with a t2i bought the external battery pack for it, and shot all day alongside me with no overheating.

But i prefer a camcorder for event work.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Thanks for that input.
bill, this is only for budgetary purposes. If we have to do them, at least we’ll have it in the budget. Obviously, some channels still require them. But, you are right, likely we won’t need to, but…

Alf