Sony Catalyst Edit Review by Videomaker

Sony has thoughtfully designed their Catalyst Production Suite to be an accessible collaborative production tool, especially effective with Sony cameras but flexible with multiple camera formats. Find out more about the Catalyst Edit tool in this review.

Sony Catalyst Edit Review

by Videomaker blog Sony Catalyst Edit is a collaborative platform that could become the backbone of video production and post-production workflows. Whenever you hear about something new from Sony, you have to take notice. This time it's Catalyst Edit, part of the Catalyst Production Suite. Sony already has a good editing app in it's Vegas Pro software, so why this new addition? According to Sony, Catalyst was created from the ground up to be different. It was designed from the ground up to work hand in hand with the new Sony cameras that shoot RAW and 4K formats. But it's not just for use with Sony cameras. You can import from many different formats including Blackmagic, Canon and GoPro, among others. Unlike Vegas Pro, Catalyst is both PC and Mac compatible and has several pieces that allow for unique collaborations between production and post-production teams. However, it won’t necessarily appeal to everyone.

Different pieces

The Suite is comprised of Catalyst Prepare and Catalyst Edit. Prepare is the first step in the process and allows you work with your video directly from the source. You can log and label your clips, import them into bins, apply color correction and even begin rough editing. This is a great tool for the director or producer in the field to begin the post-production process.

As it’s not designed to replace Vegas Pro, Catalyst doesn’t come preloaded with all of the bells and whistles you might expect.

As it’s not designed to replace Vegas Pro, Catalyst doesn’t come preloaded with all of the bells and whistles you might expect. However, does take advantage of OpenFX for additional transitions and effects and exports to other programs better suited to handle graphics and other post production tasks. Sony has put a lot of thought into they way audio is handled The suite makes it very easy to identify and label all of those audio tracks that higher-end cameras can record.

Putting It to the Test

The Suite does not have a tutorial, but if you're familiar with other editing programs, the interface is fairly simple. However, if you’re unfamiliar with other Sony video applications, we advise downloading the User's Manual when going through the installation process ....[continue to full article]