Customer Reviews

Apple Final Cut Studio 5.1 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's the skinny...

If you want to just cut family videos and such. Stick with Imovie HD or Final Cut Express. They are enough for most amateur users. They give you what you need and with excellent quality. Final Cut Studio is ABSOLUTELY made for professional users. Without a great deal of experience, IT'S HARD to learn. You need a background in things like proc amp settings, 3:2 Pulldown techniques, color adjustments using waveform and vectorscopes, etc, to make any fast headway with Final Cut Studio. And to the fella who said some nonsense about 12-bit audio...you're just wrong.

If you're brave enough and have enough time, go on buy it! At 1299.00 List it's a bargain for what it includes. I mean come on, fully NATIVE HD video editing for under $10,000?? Unheard of. NONE of the other majors, as of this writing support truly NATIVE HD editing. They all have to transcode and recompoile, which degrades the image.

Final Cut Studio has a full compliment of PROFESSIONAL features. When used well a PRO can create stunning HD video in beatiful detail. Some one with Less experience in video production can creat nice looking stuff, but not without a lot of heartache and hair pulling. As I said, IT'S HARD to learn without some prior background.

Cut it Right!
BT
Wicked Video

Great product, strong learning curve, good support. DVD Studio Pro4
the authoring system is by far the most difficult aspect to grasp in
the bundle. I wish that Apple would have directed a little more attention
to walking you through actually using it rather than explaining the powers
of the universe. Now I'm going to have to contact them and take them up
on their over eager support team. The 683 page manual for the authoring
system is well worth having around for explaining things Popular Mechanic
probably never thought of, and also for serious laughter. Don't get me
wrong I love the book it explains everything you could ever need to know
about authoring, but I have yet to come across the part that explains how
to use their program. Great product I am very happy with it!

I hated it at first, thought it was way to confusing, maybe because I'm new to mac as well. But, now that I'm starting to get use to it after 3 months, WoW! It can do lots of stuff. I'm using it to spice up home movies, it's probably a bit much for such use. Just beware, it has a steep learning curve at first. If I hadn't paid so much, I would have gone back to my Pinnacle 10. You definitely need to invest in how to videos.

Dan

Excellent program bundle. Motion alone is worth the price of the package! I use this professionally and it makes it a pleasure to get shorts and even quick web presentations easy!

That's right. Studio 5.1 offers the best digital video editing software on the market. Typical Apple, the applications are almost intuitive and easily understood (the basics, anyway). This suite isn't for the novice who thinks he'll turn his home movies into Cannes-worthy shorts. Sorry. Final Cut doesn't do magic. But it DOES give you the professional tools used in Hollywood.

Yes, Adobe's After Effects is just as wonderful to use as Final Cut, but Final Cut offers something Adobe can't: seemless integration with all the other Apple professional applications. You'll notice that Final Cut Pro exports easily to DVD Studio Pro, and that tracks enhanced through Soundrack work perfectly for that special effects sequence you're mastering on Motion. Until the end of April 2007 Adobe will not have any such integration available for the Mac. And even when they bring out all their creative suites to work on Mac's, there will still be a learning curve.

I'm not saying Studio 5.1 is a breeze to grasp. It's not. But it is certainly simple enough to master the basics, and then build upon your knowledge. There have been plenty of times I've had to scratch my head and figure out how to perform a specific effect in Motion or Final Cut. I don't know what it's called but I know what I want it to look like. The books don't seem to have what I want. The tutorials don't touch on it. Online sources seem to hint at what I'm looking for, but don't quite hit the mark. But upon some experimentation it will dawn on me: there IS a way to do it, and it's called so-and-so and it's DEFINATELY in the books, if I know where to look. Such moments were frustrating, but after achieving my goals, it was definately a learning experience.

Should you go out and buy Final Cut if you feel like 'porting your home videos to DVD? No. Not a good idea. I'd stick with the iLife package; that will be more than enough for Timmy's bath footage. But for those of you who have a lot of extra footage that you think could be turned into some sort of experimental short, or need a software package powerful enough to make your independent film dreams come true, Studio 5.1 is worth the money.

But for those of you not fully convinced yet, or are considering waiting for Adobe's CS3 relese later April 2007, I have an argument to present:

If you've ever used iMovie or iDVD, you already know Final Cut Studio. Simple as that. True, there's a lot of stuff you still don't know about (i.e., color correction, motion graphics, etc.) but you've already tasted the Apple fruit, and the rest of the collection will be just as sweet. I use After Effects off and on. It's a very good product, no doubt about it. In fact, I've used it almost as many times as Final Cut Pro. But there's still a bit of uneasiness for me due to the fact that I'm not used to Adobe's layout. It's not all that different from Apple's, but it's the comfort level I have with Final Cut or Motion or even iMovie that keeps me coming back more often to Final Cut than to After Effects. Yes, this could be remedied by spending more time using Adobe's software, but my counter-argument is that Apple's suite actually is available for the Mac. Adobe only made Photoshop available to us Macies until their decision last year to give Mac's the full product line.

It's safe to say that Adobe has probably done a very good job at their software integration for the Mac. I'm pretty sure it will easily rival Final Cut Studio. But, for me, Studio just works. Will I find myself going to Adobe off-and-on. Yup. Probably more likely now that the entire product line will be made available; but my choice to stick with Apple is one made through experience and comfort level.

Given all of this, it's probably best to go try both Adobe's suite and Studio 5.1 at CompUSA. Compare and contrast the good with the bad, and decide which one you think you'll be more productive with. And, hopefully, you can get your hands on trial versions so that you can test for a few days and pick with a clearer understanding of the costs and benefits.

In any case, I'm more than happy with Studio 5.1. It offers everything I'll ever need for any project.

Final Cut is a very fun program for somebody who is new to the world of editing... It doesn't have a good explination on how to use the program on its books... If the books were more detailed about how to do something, it'll be easier to learn how to edit...

I spent a lot of time on the phone asking other people where do i do something because the books doesn't provide all the info you need...

At the end you get the job done somehow!

Nice program- does what it says- and edits DV or HD DV fine with 8, 10, 16, 22, or 24 bit sound.... but wait- you might be saying, what about the most common form of sound recorded on earth- 12 bit sound.... nope- no way- no means to make it work.... now- if you are a serious home movie type- and you have a project you want pro editing for- DO NOT BUY FC STUDIO as it will not handle 12 bit sound at all!!!!!! Why would apple do that? It seems criminally obvious to me that they want lots of useless "prosumer" sales.... apple made less of a friend with me... I bailed to use the free programs that handle 12 bit without a blink- too bad I had ambition for our Tibetan children's films... its my mistake for filming in 12 bit sound... theirs for not clearly stating that the product does not support the most common format... it does not upset me though... as i always enjoy my revenge ice cold :-)