Final Cut Pro X: What's Missing for Some Pros

Creative Cow Magazine by Walter Biscardi

So yesterday was met with the news that Final Cut Pro X was finally available and like someone waiting outside the famous PT Barnum museum in New York City, I plunked down my $299 to download the software and ensure that the information I had gotten over the past few months was correct. I was wrong. It was worse.

We joked at NAB that this was "iMovie Pro" and doggone it if that isn't what this turned out to be. A very souped up version of iMovie '11 but with iMovie's ability to "Export to FCP" removed. The basic operation is identical. Apple just added a few new features and rolled in some color tools and sound tools. But who cares about the actual operation of the editing interface, give me a couple of days and I'll by flying through the interface. That's not the problem. The problem is the insular thinking that Apple seems to have taken with this application. In fact, I just wrote a review on the App Store (where FCPX is hovering between 2.5 and 3 stars) and it sums up the major features that are missing or will cause us issues if we tried to implement this app moving forward. As I'm sure you won't see this review quoted anywhere in the Apple marketing blitz and it's always possible it won't even be posted on their site, here it is in its entirety…


Posted June 22, 2011 by Walter Biscardi - Rating: One Star (would have been a half star if I could)


Built from the ground up to be completely self contained, one editor, one machine. Cannot even talk to other Apple pro software. Cannot open previous Final Cut Pro projects. period. We have 10 years worth of projects that cannot be opened. read more...