[Jonathan Ball]

Apple seem to be focused on creating an ‘experience’ with their products, and that experience tends to have a certain vision and focus, anything outside of that is not important. They have done this with the iPhone, iPad and more and more so with OS X (think App Store). This is fine and it is their business, I still find it disappointing however that they are just happy to turn their back on people who have invested in Pro products.

I am a pro-am (I can hear the boos and hisses from the Pro galleries now), I have a day time job and do part time work as cameraman and assistant editor for a community TV show based on horses. There are three editors, when footage is shot someone captures it using a FCP project with set rules for sorting into bins and labelling footage. This footage is then sent to all three editors so we all have the raw footage and all we need to do is email FCP project files around, simple and easy. I don’t think we can do that with FCP X. We also need to output to tape (anyone who thinks tape is dead is out of their tree), don’t think we can do that with FCP X.

In short I am not a pro, yet I don’t think I can use FCP X. There must be plenty more people like me who now need to move elsewhere. I would have much preferred to see FCP 8 with 64Bit performance and some of the other changes in FCP X, not a different product. Still it is their business, and they clearly don’t think there is enough cash in professional products.

I wonder who they will get to endorse FCP X? Can’t see the Coen Brothers, Walter Murch, et al using this.