Final Cut Pro X is Apple’s major overhaul of its current video editing suite and has caused some rifts in the video community for a lack of features and a supposed step back approach to editing. If you’re looking to upgrade, here’s what you need to know.
You Can Still Use Final Cut Pro 6 & 7 … But You Can’t Buy It
Apple is well known for new technological shifts that leaves past tech in the dust. The PowerPC to Intel migration, OS 9 to OS X and the iPod To iOS have altered the company’s product lines in dramatic way but despite Apple’s mantra of “Out with the old, in with the new” users have been given a support line until they make the migration. As quick as Final Cut Pro X came, Apple was just as fast to discontinue selling previous version of Final Cut Pro which has been the cause of most complaints against the new editing App.
Many companies plan their budgets in advance and don’t always purchase the latest Software upgrades as soon as they arrive. Every day users and editing houses were purchasing copies of Final Cut and likely counted on the suite being available despite the release of FCP X. Now users and editors are stuck with only the newest version of Final Cut which may not be up to snuff.
The good news is your current copies of FCP 6 and 7 will still work fine under Lion but you may want to hold on to your install discs for a while as Apple axed some crucial features.
You’ll Never Be Able To Import Old Projects
FCP X is rewritten from the ground up and sports a dramatically new interface and under the hood improvements that take advantage of your Mac’s multi-core processor. During the rewrite process, some features were cut outright or just not included.
You won’t be able to import old projects which is huge for heavy video users. FCP X will only benefit you on new projects assuming you don’t want to take the time to migrate your content (however much it may be) to a new system and workflow of editing. Apple has also said outright that FCP 6 and 7 projects can’t be imported due to the low level differences between FCP 6/7 and X.
Other Features Will Come As Updates
Other features Apple left out of the shipping version of FCP X include multi cam editing, no EDL/XML support and no native plugin support. For the full list, read Premium Beats Missing FCP X features.
Apple took the time to issue an FAQ in response to many of the complaints editors have FCP X. Some of the features mentioned as missing will be coming in a future Software update that Apple has issued as “Top Priority.” The FAQ includes Apple’s workarounds for many of the problems editors are having as well as the timeline on upcoming features.
