Is Final Cut Pro X , Still Just iMovie Pro?

Many people were disappointed with the release of Final Cut X , this is because it is fundamentally different from previous versions of Final Cut. However to iMovie users Final Cut X seemed familiar in many ways. This has led many professional video editors labelling the new version as iMovie pro.

So why change such a successful video editing software, so dramatically?

Apple was faced with a situation that they needed to recode the old 32-bit application to run as 64-bit, so that it could make use of more processing power within today's modern computers.

This meant that they could essentially recreate what they already had or they could dramatically change the way we edit forever! As you can tell the second statement seems more like something apple would do, yet by doing so they risked losing everything they had built up in the old version of Final Cut.

Is Final Cut just iMovie Pro? Well there's no doubt that FCPX is built more on principals iMovie than the old version of Final Cut. This makes a lot of sense in many ways, iMovie was created way after Final Cut and contains many modern principles and ideas that Final Cut never has. The very fact that iMovie projects can be imported whilst Final Cut 7 projects can't is an indication of this.

Is this all parts of apples bigger picture of vertically integrating all of their editing products? Right from editing in iMovie on the iPad to bring in the product to fruition in FCPX.

So whats pro about it ? Final Cut Pro X works with more formats, with more audio and video layers and with more video and audio effects than find in iMovie.

Yes there are similarities between both applications , yet there are some nice differences for PRO is starting to live up to its name with the three free updates since its launch. Now having broadcast monitoring in beta with XML support and an all-new multi-cam editing platform with automatically syncs with audio channel and support up to a ridiculous amount of cameras.

Article by 20-20 | Wedding videography and photography