Final Cut Pro vs. Express

[the big kx]

Hi guys, new to the site and first post. I have a quick question regarding Final Cut Express and Pro. I have about 10-15 hours experience with Final Cut Express through a class at school so I have a decent idea of how to use it, but mainly just basically. The list for it is $199. Now, I am wondering if this is a good video editing software to make a real professional video (mainly action ones, MX, but could be anything) as I have not really explored what I can do with it. How advanced is FCE compared to FCP, listed at $1199? Why is FCP $1000 more, and is this worth it? I'm obviously not looking to make a hollywood movie, but even though right now I have limited knowledge with FC, I would like to build on this and become really good with it. Will I soon exhaust FCE's features like I did after one use of iMovie? Or will FCE last me for several years with upgrades as seen fit?

Thanks guys.

[FSMBP]

You can buy Final Cut Express for $200 because it's just a video editor.

You can't just buy Final Cut Pro, you buy Final Cut Studio; that includes a bunch of professional apps for movie-quality sound production, visual effects,Final Cut Pro itself, and DVD authoring. That's why it's so expense.

The difference between the actual Final Cut Pro 7 vs. Final Cut Express 4 are slim but Final Cut Pro 7 offers stuff for batch capturing, and a lot of integration into the Final Cut Studio Suite.

Now, if you're going to make a living off video production - I would recommend Final Cut Studio; with Studio you get Motion (a program that does a lot of professional titling and several high quality visual effects). However, if you want to make quality films for YouTube or for yourself/friends, Express is the way to go (it offers green screen usage, and other video effects).