TECH TALK: Final Cut Pro X Preview (My thoughts)

Yesterday Final Cut Pro X was previewed. You can read about some of the facts in this post by Larry Jordan. I will not go into the facts, but I wanted to write down some of my thoughts and wonderings about this new upcoming release.

First and foremost I must say, that I started my career as a film editor with Final Cut Pro. It was easy to learn and quite fun to work with. A couple of years later I realized the flaws in Final Cut Pro. Moreover I started working with Avid (since that is mostly used in commercial film productions here in Germany).

By no means do I believe that Avid is flawless and perfect, but it feels more solid in my opinion. At least in the "classic" post-production workflow. I would say that FCP is like a swiss army knife that can do a lot of things, but Avid acts like a real tool. And I rather build a house with the proper tool than a swiss army knife.

The new Final Cut Pro X does look promising at first glance. I can understand that just reading about the new features, can make this new release pretty exciting. But I can't help but wonder if the mayor gripes that at least I do have with all the versions up to now are resolved.

I always hate FCP for the way it deals with render files. For instance: Why do I have to re-render a sequence just because I just switched the visibility of a video track on and off? I did not change anything, just find the old render files!

Another thing about the recent FCP is the gamma shift problem. Exporting files always ends with having slightly brighter files. I read that this has something to do with the way FCP handles RGB and 601 color spaces, although I'm not quite sure if that is the real reason.

File handling and moving files is also a little cumbersome in my opinion. If you move the files from one place to another (Backup reasons), sometimes during relink process I get error messages like "file X has different Timecodes. Can't relink!" I still don't have any clue why FCP does have such problems, but in Avid you just (because of the proprietary filesystem) copy the Mediafolder and it's more or less done. Ok with the introduction of the AMA file system, you could run into the same problems, but up to now I've been able to stay clear of that new feature.

These are just a couple of things that make me choose Avid over Final Cut Pro, nevertheless I am looking forward to see what Final Cut Pro X has to offer and how the pricetag of $299.- will change the game. By the way the pricetag leaves me skeptical about how mature the new release will be, but on the other hand FCP Studio was always quite affordable.

I would love to hear what others have to say about the new FCP X or what you think about my thoughts. Comment below...