Nab 2011

F

Fidelio

Active member
Hi all,

A little dilemma here - I'm not sure if I should take the plunge to buy Final Cut Studio right now or if I should wait until next year, after NAB. What is the likelihood of an update to the current version being announced then?

F.
 
Kind of appropriate that NAB is held in Las Vegas because your question is a good one for the odds makers. My take is that if Apple doesn't come out with something by NAB they will, effectively, be out of the game. Another six months of people jumping ship to CS5 will be very hard to overcome even if a new FCS is indeed awesome. For most people, switching your NLE is not exactly an impulse-buy type of thing. And CS5 is steadily gaining momentum which tends to influence new user's buying decisions. I'm personally optimistic simply because it's hard for me to see Apple ever ceding anything to Adobe.
 
No one knows but Apple. And Apple hasn't really had much of a presence at NAB lately. But again, if you have clients, and you need FCP, then why wait?
 
tflak, you're right - it's been something that I've been thinking about. I've heard a lot of good things about CS5 in comparison to FCS but I guess I am still leaning towards FCS because I will be doing primarily freelance work and it seems to me that there aren't nearly as many opportunities for CS5 (maybe because it's still new?) out there. What would be the better choice, in your opinion, for my circumstances?

David S., I think it's mostly the hardware requirements that I'm concerned about. A new system is a significant investment for me and I guess I fear obsolescence in the face of an update. I suppose if I weren't on a shoestring budget these concerns wouldn't be particularly relevant, but alas that is my case.

Anyway, thanks for the responses guys.
 
Fidelio said:
I've heard a lot of good things about CS5 in comparison to FCS but I guess I am still leaning towards FCS because I will be doing primarily freelance work and it seems to me that there aren't nearly as many opportunities for CS5 (maybe because it's still new?) out there.
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Seems like you just answered your own question! Stick with FCS... if there's a new version coming, I'm sure an upgrade will be available.:happy:
 
I would also recommend sticking with FCS. And be aware that any new, killer aspects that come with a new version may require a significant hardware upgrade to take full advantage. My philosophy is to stick with what's working for you until it either no longer meets your needs (not wants) or there's some compelling reason to change which looks like it would result in an enhanced workflow.

I started out with Premiere 1.0 and After Effects (when it was still Cosa) eventually migrated to FCP when it became available, then went to CS4 to take advantage of the supposedly "seamless integration" between CS4 apps (mainly Premiere and AE), but got extremely tired of walking on egg shells every time I worked on a project because things were very unstable in terms of interoperability; even on a fully tricked out and otherwise stable system. So I went back to FCS. Yes, CS5 seems to be a huge step forward compared to the now long-in-tooth FCP. And many are reporting good success and reliability with CS5. However, I'm still gun shy from CS4 and FCP has been completely reliable for me. So I'm willing to wait to see what Apple does.
 
That's unreal! - probably worth something for sure, if not now, certainly down the road. It's amazing to think 3 students from Brown (if I remember right) wrote COSA 1.0 and the interface is essentially unchanged in terms of basic functionality yet today. Truly brilliant. Nothing could touch it or even come close back in the early days.

At the risk of completely boring everyone but on the chance you may recall the following, I'll mention that I originally started doing desktop video (Mac IIci) using an early version of Macromedia Director and then graduated to a precursor of Premiere called Video Scripter. Avid was around by then, but I was too poor to even consider it. Okay, I'll stop now.

Almost forgot to mention I just read Steve Jobs has commented that a new FCP will be out the beginning of the year. Looks legit, but I'd like to see it confirmed in a couple of places.
 
Fidelio said:
Hi all,

A little dilemma here - I'm not sure if I should take the plunge to buy Final Cut Studio right now or if I should wait until next year, after NAB. What is the likelihood of an update to the current version being announced then?

F.
Click to expand...


You know PP CS5 is 64 bit has GPU acceleration and tight intergration with the other Adobe products. It can import and export Avid and FCP projects and it also has screen writing software with syncing ability. FCS may get all this 8 or 9 months from now but why wait? I think your best bet would be to try the trial version of CS5 and see if you like the GUI. If you do then you might want to jump ship to CS5. The only thing FCS will be able to do at best is play catch up from this point onward.

The GT 240 is about the least expensive GPU that will indeed make a huge improvement when using PP CS5 but you must use the GPU hack in order for PP CS5 to see the GT 240.
 
medeamajic said:
The only thing FCS will be able to do at best is play catch up from this point onward.
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How typically Apple! :)

Seriously, no doubt CS5 has some great advancements, but I wouldn't sell Apple short. I suspect that this has become a bit about ego in the pro app arena with Jobs. And he definitely doesn't like to be second best.

If the wait for a FCS upgrade isn't due to some awesome new features being included, I for one will be very surprised.
 
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