Hands-On With the New Final Cut Pro X 10.4 Update

[Miguel Cunha]

HEVC is not new. This update is way overdue.

HEVC is still in its infancy, specially in professional workflows, since it doesn't yet compress as much as expected maintaining a good quality.
There is no major professional camera manufacturer that has HEVC implemented as recording codec - and believe me when I tell you that I'm holding myself, waiting (in)patiently for a camera with HEVC recording.

HEVC has been mainly used in delivery formats, through transcoders, namely 4K Blu-ray discs, HDR, 10 bit color depth and Rec. 2020 color space - all of which were undoubtedly aimed at when designing the new iMac Pro. Other workflows were on hold, since te codec was very taxing on the hardware.

The new Mac line, launched this year, along with High Sierra, not only gives native support to HEVC, as they have the hardware processing power to handle HEVC.
Therefore, I think that the HEVC update, not being new, comes in par with what Apple and Intel have been doing.

By the same logic, with new chips, whether for computers, or imaging devices and recorders, I believe that HEVC's implementation will be broader. Those of us who work in 4K, do need it as soon as we can get - whether for recording more time in less memory, or work with it in post without the need to time consuming transcodes.

 

[sevoneone]

No decent noise reduction tool yet?

Good noise reduction is hard. I've never seen any bundled/built-in tool that holds a candle to Neat Video. Best $75-$99 you can spend for a plug-in IMHO.

That's what frightens me. If I buy it in the near future, it might be updated to, say, version 11 as paid upgrade.
what do you guys think?

Doubt it. Apple needs to entice pros to by the iMac Pro and whatever they come up with for the Mac Pro. Releasing a paid update in the middle of that would be the small push some would need to switch platforms.

Apple's creative pro business is teetering on the edge of a cliff. There are Windows PCs available that surpass Macs in hardware performance and match them in quality. macOS still outshines Windows, but Windows 10 is taking big steps in the right direction and works well enough for most. I hope the right people at Apple are paying attention.

 

[Westside guy]

Aperture was never a competitor of Photoshop. Two very different tools.

I take it you’re not familiar with Adobe Lightroom? It occupies the exact same space Aperture did (and still does, for a few people).

 

[CrystalQuest76]

For those that don't need all the professional power of Final Cut Pro X (but want more than iMovie can provide) and if you have an iPad consider getting LumaFusion. It exports at 4K and has three tracks of video and three tracks of audio (and it has keyframing). For $20 its really impressive.
No, I don't work for them, nor get any thing from them. But i do like saving money.

 

[POSTguy]

never mind...

 

[fitshaced]

Good noise reduction is hard. I've never seen any bundled/built-in tool that holds a candle to Neat Video. Best $75-$99 you can spend for a plug-in IMHO.

I don't think it being hard to do is a good enough reason to not build it into FCPX. I have Neat Video and as good as it is, I'd prefer it built in and more efficient in resource usage.

 

[Oh-es-Ten]

Do companies use FCP or is it more the freelance people in a commercial point of view?

We are a production company that shoots content around the world for some big global brands and we have 10 FCPX Edit Suites plus 6 Mobile Edit stations on FCPX. We all collaborate on shared storage and some of the fast-turnournd work we do wouldn't be possible in Premiere - I know this because we tried it.

It certainly isn't just freelancers who use FCPX, this software has been a huge part of the growth of the business over the years, as well as the talented editors driving it.

 

[videolane]

When I need to get work done quickly, I turn to FCPx. I am glad it's improving.

 

[Gabriel Spaulding]

Do companies use FCP or is it more the freelance people in a commercial point of view?

FCP X has over 2 million users. While many of them are freelancers the number of production companies switching to FCP X is growing, particularly overseas. It is used for online content, weddings, corporate, news, broadcast, and features.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

That's what frightens me. If I buy it in the near future, it might be updated to, say, version 11 as paid upgrade.
what do you guys think?

Really no one outside apple knows that there plan are....

 

[0388631]

This is the 24th update over the 6.5 years since I bought the initial release of FCPX

That puts it into perspective. Snow Leopard feels just like yesterday.