Final cut express

[jer446]

Hey guys.. I have a few questions.. I have always made some really cool videos in ichat.. Now that i upgraded to leopard, i feel it may be time to upgrade my editing software. Is final express much harder to use for someone who is used to imovie 06?

Is it possible to do any of the photobooth backdrop effects in final cut express, or maybe even another program? I like the idea of being able to easily do a chroma key type movie by taking a before and after of the backdrop. I know photobooth does a terrible job at this backdrop stuff, so i was looking for something maybe more dedicated. (i also do not have an intel mac, i have a g5).

And my last question is, if i have a digital camera, not a video camera, (nikon d40x for example) would it be possible to connect to my computer to use as the video camera? the quality would be much better than my isight.

 

[jer446]

Anyone?

 

[Much Ado]

Is final express much harder to use for someone who is used to imovie 06?

I found it fine to get used to, but there is a learning curve and it will take some time. It's a pro-sumer app, so don't expect it to be as simple as iMovie

Is it possible to do any of the photobooth backdrop effects in final cut express, or maybe even another program?...

You don't get the low-grade green-screen effect for obvious reasons, but you can use a chroma-key which i love very much. Simple and powerful.

And my last question is, if i have a digital camera, not a video camera, (nikon d40x for example) would it be possible to connect to my computer to use as the video camera? the quality would be much better than my isight.

FCE is designed for tape footage (DV, HDV).

 

[theBB]

And my last question is, if i have a digital camera, not a video camera, (nikon d40x for example) would it be possible to connect to my computer to use as the video camera? the quality would be much better than my isight.

I don't see any video recording capabilities in Nikon DSLRs.

 

[Igantius]

Now that i upgraded to leopard, i feel it may be time to upgrade my editing software. Is final express much harder to use for someone who is used to imovie 06?

Further to the other posts, I would advise only upgrading if you feel limited by what iMovie gives you. That said, with the lower price, it's a great time to upgrade and a great bit of software.

As Much Ado says there is a learning curve and it will take a while getting used to the interface - just be prepared to invest some time.

 

[Hmac]

And my last question is, if i have a digital camera, not a video camera, (nikon d40x for example) would it be possible to connect to my computer to use as the video camera? the quality would be much better than my isight.

The sensors in Nikon dSLRs don't do video. No way to do that with your D40x.

I confess, I haven't been all that impressed with FCE. Maybe it's just the learning curve, but I spent the $99 the new FCE upgrade would cost and instead upgraded to Premiere Elements 4.0 to run in Windows XP/Boot Camp. My biggest issue has been good cross-platform transcoding. Flip-for-Mac studio does OK with WMV's but I don't think they're as good as what Premiere Elements does. Also, I still prefer MPEG1's for small video files for download and for embedding in PowerPoint presentations and IMHO the MainConcept compressor for exporting to MPEG 1 that comes included with Premiere Elements is superior to FFMPEG, and certainly a lot less cumbersome to use.