“Apple held a private Final Cut Pro X (FCP X) briefing for enterprise contracts in London on July 6th,” Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors.
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“Notably, the event reveals that Apple is working on allowing existing Final Cut Pro 7 enterprise deployments to purchase additional licenses,” Kim reports.
In addition:
• FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party soon
• FCPX EDL import/export coming soon
• FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback; capture straight into FCPX [events].
• XSAN support for FCPX coming in the next few weeks
• FCPX Broadcast video output via #Blackmagic & @AJAVideo coming soon
• Additional codec support for FCPX via 3rd Parties coming soon
• Customizable sequence TC in FCPX for master exports coming soon
• Some FCPX updates will be free
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Someone took the turkey out of the over a little too soon…
precisely. a month delay is better than all the bad press over essentially giving the software the wrong name and figuratively stranding legacy fcp users by pulling the suite and the server.
come on Apple–you’re better than that. starting to feel like the mid nineties all over again.
There’s no such thing as bad press.
Everyone who could possibly need Final Cut Pro knows Apple is working on a brand new version.
I agree but this little issue extended beyond users and made inroads into the general news rotation. Even the Conan spoof as esoteric and inside-baseball as it was wasn’t good for Apple.
I’m sure the audience was like “what the he’ll is a final cut pro”. what they did understand was “Apple”, “screw-up” “lame software” true or not.
I know that this is a little off topic, but since we have so many videographers here, I thought that I would ask…
I am looking for a professional video camera for filming video that could be possibly used on HD television, and I am looking for recommendations, and basically, if no exact models are suggested, what features should I be looking for?
Thanks!
Sony excam-1 or excam-3. excellent quality cameras. I prefer the ex-1s button layout but the ex-3 is almost shoulderable and it has a covered LCD viewfinder.
Thank you, I will take a look at them
How much can you spend? Price is the number one factor in narrowing your choices. And although FCPX transcodes in the background, a professional camera that records an intra-frame codec is best. (The “drawback” is that such cameras use “expensive” memory cards, and not cheaper SDHC memory.)
oh yeah. memory cards could be a major hurdle. excam sxs cards run between $400 and $900 a piece. they eventually pay for themselves and they’re durable but sometimes the worry over losing them not to mention losing them with irreplaceable footage on them can be a downer.
Price is not a problem at this point, as it will likely be expensed out to a larger company…
On a side note, I am using this as an excuse to start using FCPX as well, so I am excited.
Well, possibly on HD tv, means that you will want a camera that records both SD (720x480p) and HD(1280x720p, 1920x1080p). The p is important because the other option is “i”, which delivers half of the pixels in one frame and the second half in the next frame, which “p” does both at the same time. I would suggest look for a camera that lets you interchange lenses, so you are able to get creative in the future with depth of field, focal length, and stuff like that. Non-interchangeable cameras really only give you one option on how your image can look. Make sure to get 2 mic inputs, because almost every situation you need both mics inputs. I would suggest getting cameras that record to a card and not a tape camera. Card is just much easier to deal with. Get a camera with audio levels as physical controls on the camera and not inside a menu somewhere. It sucks to look for audio levels while your filming, when you could just turn a dial on the camera itself. Thats all i can think of right now. Almost every camera has a histogram, audio meter bar, custom white balance, external monitor output and the basics. A good brand to start with is Sony.
Thank you for your input, any specific model that stands out to you?
I personally use a Canon 60D, which is great for my needs. But, the audio input sucks for it…but I have a microphone and a Zoom H4N to handle that, which means i have to sync later…but thanks to FCPS X, hopefully it will be a lot easier with compound clips…if I keep using it? who knows, all depends on the higher ups for me. Personally, I like the program as far as the editing part goes. But, any DSLR can’t do basic functions of a regular video camera, so…if your needing some pretty basic functions such as: recording things longer than 15 to 20 minutes, audio directly into the camera, follow focus, automated zoom ins, and various other things…then you might want to get a regular video camera. Which the Song XCams are great for that. I do think in the next 5 years though that DSLR’s are going to change how we independent and various other production companies are going to film.
Hey man have you checked out the Canon Legria HF S21? Sweet little machine. Pocketable, sweet 1080 output. I’m all for it.
Also, if you plan to do any slow motion stuff, get a camera with a frame rate of 60p. The normal rate of frames a second is 30, so having 60 lets you get twice the frames, so you can then play a standard second (30 frames) in 2 seconds, thus making it slower without weird blurs and stuff
I actually use a Canon 60D for recording excellent video. With pro lenses, the quality is excellent!
Using a DSLR would also have a lot to do with how much video you expect to be taking, and also if you take still shots as well.
So many videographers here?
You have to be kidding.
A couple of sites for such info is FilmMaker Magazine and Vimeo
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/
http://vimeo.com/
This is where I hang out, from people I have seen making comments about their equipment, and using it with FCPX, and other Apple equipment, which is why I asked here. Although, I am thankful for the links and will gratefully accept any other good links people may have.
I have Panasonic Lumix GH2. It takes nice HD videos and takes great stills too.
There are lots of options, all valid for different applications, users, and budgets.
Before anybody makes recommendations, we should know the answers to some questions:
What’s your budget?
What type of video? 30/60-second commercial spots? Half–hour shorts? Long-form?
What type of environments will the shoots take place? Indoors or outside? Does the camera need to be durable, or can it be more fragile?
If you are looking for a professional video camera that will serve well into the future on projects both large and small I would suggest something like the Panasonic AG-AF100. You can use many different types of lenses with it. The body alone will run you about 6K. The lenses… the sky’s the limit.
But without further information on what type of projects you will be shooting, or your budget (everybody’s got one) it’s hard to really suggest something. I would stay away from the DSLR cameras like the D60 if you are going to shoot anything like live events or interviews. Or action for that matter. I may be a purest but the issues with these types of cameras (I own a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 7D) and neither are really up to the challenge of full time, heavy duty video production. If money really is no object then you could always go with a Red camera. That will set you back about $75K ready to shoot. But beware. The FCPX is not ready for collaborative workflows yet. And it doesn’t support Red codecs (as well as many others) yet.
Good luck and have fun!
So, what is the response from you guys in hollywood? Does this help or are you still mad about the whole deal?
Considering Apple now addresses FCP-7 extra licensing and the addition of many features you care about to FCP-X in the “SOON” timeframe…..whats your reaction?
I could not be happier.
The import/export is the HUGE issue being resolved for us along with the FCP7 availability.
We love FCPX in many ways and are eager to complete the migration to it. Import/Export and FCP7 availability will allow us to do this.
We’re getting everything we want.
Even more, Apple *listened* to us. This goes a very long way. Pros said, “we need this” and Apple said, “ok”. This is huge because other vendors *have* abandoned or let us down in the past. Remember when Adobe killed Premiere for the Mac? And Avid, don’t get me started.
Apple rarely gets things wrong. It’s good to see that when they do, they correct for it really quickly. In this case, it was as fast as could be expected and the outcome is exactly what we wanted.
Not mad. Just adopting a wait and see attitude. IF they do everything they say, do it well and in a timely fashion it may be workable. There are still many more issues that they have not publicly addressed. So we’ll see. Once bitten…
We are adopting a wait and see attitude. There are still many more features that they have not yet commented on publicly that are needed. And the consumerization of the product is worrisome. Tools that were once a click away, tools that are used everyday such as blending modes, are now 4 or more clicks deep. Not a good sign.
IF they do add the features in a timely fashion and do them well then I could see migrating. But, again, we’ll see. Once bitten…
“Some FCPX updates will be free” ???
Shouldn’t they all be?
Should I go for the refund now, and repurchase when it’s finally updated to meet my needs… or hold on to it and be nickel and dime’d though paid updates?
Hmmm… it’s virtually of no use to me now.
Surely you cant expect THIRD party stuff to be included for free. These guys need to eat too! As far as “Apple” updates to FCPX are concerned I am sure they will not charge you for minor upgrades…but for major upgrades even Apple has to employ S/W writers and be able to pay them. Look at OS-X. You get free updates along the way and then for major updates you have to pay something. Right? By the way, Apple just refunded some guys that complained in the same way as you. Complain enough and Apple will refund your purchase even though they state right UPFRONT that purchase is not refundable. Try getting that from MS or Adobe or a million other such companies.
Understood. Third party stuff is.. well third party stuff, not an update.
I wouldn’t expect anything more than a 1.x update to be free. However, if any update (even a 2.0 that only brings FCPX missing features up to where FCP7 left off) was charged for… I would have a problem with that.
Down the road, when there is a version 2 of FCPX, that greatly exceeds the present capabilities of FCP7 and FCPX combined… I’ll pay. Heck, if that existed today, I’d pay $1k for it.
I’ve been following comments on professional film/video production boards, and see there are already refunds being given. But… I want to believe Apple isn’t going to screw me, and this will all sort out. So I’ll hold on to my copy of FCX, and wait for the day it earns the “P”.
Warning to Apple though…The count is “strike one”.
With all due respect, Apple does not care about “strikes”. So please stop counting.
By the way, what is differential cost of FCP7 and FCPX? I am guessing here, but the final cost of owning a FCPX version with all the bells and whistles might still only be less than the original FCP7. And I am guessing you would be getting a hell of a program by then.
Hard to tell the cost difference.
With FCP7, it was really Final Cut Studio 3.
Along with FCP, the price included…
Motion
Compressor
Color
DVD Studio Pro
Soundtrack Pro
LiveType
Cinema Tools
Qmaster
And no, full capability versions of none of the above have be rolled into FCPX.
Well, even though I don’t think the sky is falling, clearly Apple wanted to get this out and announced by a certain date. And, some parts weren’t ready for it. Those parts will get there. Wait and buy it when it does.
Thankfully, though, no one but Apple has EVER hit a deadline without having everything finished or perfect.
Frankly, with most of what’s on my TV and in movies these days, I don’t think it’s better editing tools that are needed. It’s better ideas to start with.
Even though I have never throught apple to rush product…I got the idea that maybe they wanted to push the App store and they needed an APP to get attention. Maybe FCPX was close to being done, and they were like “lets do it.” I mean, the thing i like about iphone apps is that I know updates will be often and their so easy to implement. And usually 1.0 of an app is barebones, compared to a 1.6.5 or something.
Wow… did Apple just pull a blinder?
Q. How do you transition a deeply conservative entrenched group to a new extensible paradigm? Who mostly use Macs because of their specialist software, whose skills take years to learn and therefore not inclined to use or be remotely interested in, new stuff?
How to shake them up a bit?
…and get the point across about the next big thing in their world whilst alerting the rest of the world to the upcoming release of 64 bit multiple-core goodness that is Lion? Oh, and coincidently piss off Avid and Adobe by raising false hopes?
A. Instantly remove floor from under their feet, cut the only lifeline – FCP7, let them fall in screaming panic for a few moments whist the world tunes in to the event…
Then…
Insert safety net as if out of nowhere, then answer their most troubled fears thus allowing phased adoption, all the while to a much bigger worldwide audience.
All this for a software release?!!
I take my hat off to Apple on this one. It’s almost poetical.
I like your imaginative take!
If you ever write a thriller or spy novel I will want a signed copy.
@FFS,
As crazy as that may sound to some, that’s almost exactly what happened with us.
At first we loved FCPX, but then realized we were screwed with the inability to import from FCP. We could wait for the missing features, but the inability to continue to buy FCP was a huge issue.
We were looking at what it would take to migrate to Adobe or Avid, and were feeling pain with both. Worse was the talk of going to PC.
Now all of this goes away. Apple sells us thousands of dollars worth of extra FCP licenses, and we feel even more connected to Apple. Heck, they even wasted the time of Avid sales reps along the way.
I can’t speak for others, but as for me, I’m totally excited about this news. As I said before, I love FCPX, it was just these issues that made it unusable. With a library of thousands of FCP projects worth millions of dollars, we were actively looking at migrating from Final Cut and possibly from Apple altogether.
The whole idea of migrating off platform is dead now, and we’ll keep running FCP and immediately install FCPX for all of our editors.
We’ll also end up buying more FCP licenses as well. I could not be happier!
I was an Avid user starting in 1991 and made the move to FCP with version 5. I’ve purchased FCPX and the editing interface is terrific. The sequence window is much like that in the Jaleo software which ran on SGI Irix. I have a film project with 100 hours of performance footage and the footage will be broken down into approx. 200 sequences. I have not yet been able to see a way to manage the footage in FCPX. As of now I will proceed with FCP 7. Since the footage is an archive. It will have a long life in the chosen software for organization and editing. I’d like to get lucky and have options making it possible to use FCPX before the film transfers are completed 7 weeks from now. Any suggestions are appreciated.
I am a filmmaker by proffesion and had been using FCP for a long time. Infact i was using FCP6. I now wanted to use FCP7 rather than the latest FCPX because i heard from many sources that FCPX is not user friendly. some commented that FCPX looks like an improvised version of imovie. I am shooting a film on RED camera and wanted to edit my film on FCP7. can anyone advise my about the compatibilty.
thanks.