Why FCP 7 more preferred by Pros than FCP X?

Can anyone please tell me, why are many Pros telling me that FCP X is merely a complex version of iMovie, and they prefer to stay with FCP 7?

OK. Let's just pop open that can of worms and watch them all wriggle out.

Don't tell me I am initiating a hot debate (even though that would be interesting to read)..)) I am very new to editing and a bit confused. As you can imagine FCP X is much less "manual" and therefore for a novice like me is a lot easier to grasp and make something out of my footage so much easier. But if there are limitations other than manually creating an effect or a transition or applying a template versus ready easy-to-apply plug-ins I would like to know! Thanks Much!

@ Tom: LOL!

@ Christiamo:

There is no NLE, nor is there any application or hardware, that fits all workflows. If you hear some people saying they prefer using classic FCP instead of FCP10 it just means that for their particular workflow or for their particular needs they find that FCP7 is more adequate at this point. Many others will say exactly the opposite. There is no right or wrong in this discussion, it's not even worth a discussion.

If you want to know if FCP10 fits your particular needs, just try it. And I don't mean "play around with it", no. Learn it, take some courses, ask questions, take the time to do some real work on it and then make up your mind. I think like many pros you will find that it's a really powerful application, with its quirks and flaws just like any other NLE. Then if you like it you can start making money with it instead of wasting yours and everybody's time on discussion boards arguing about it. And I can say this for a fact: in the real world FCP7 is absolutely not more preferred by pros than FCP10.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Ronny Thank you for straight forward verse. I appreciate it a lot; will follow your advice about not wasting anyone's time for the matter and will try my best in learning and using FCP10, I happen to like it better.

Cristian

Hi Christian,

I am fairly sure you will like it. Like many other dinosaur editors I was sceptical in the beginning, but I gave it a fair chance. Now we have three FCP10 bays in daily broadcast production along with our Avid and Quantel bays, and I'm taking another three FCP10 bays to the Olympics to cover the games for our national broadcaster.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to post here. This really is a friendly and professional forum.

Happy editing

Ronny

Thank you Ronny very much!
I wanted to do this for a long time. Got myself an iMac and am simply playing around with FCP 10. I am a bit far from making money with it, still in a learning process and don't know how long will it take, but hopefully with occasional help of kind people like you, I'll feel smart and ready to use this great tool (fcp) sooner!

Thx again!

christiamo, I think especially if you are new to the world of editing, FCPX is great.

What blows my mind are the people who are spending money and time training and using FCP 7. Apple killed it a year ago and it's a dead piece of software. I can understand a company with a workflow in 7 still using it, but to invest money and training (especially a lot of LA edit schools) training on it seems like a waste to me.

Long live X.

Any professional NLE is a complex version of iMovie really. The core function is the same across the board... IN and OUT, INSERT, OVERWRITE or REPLACE clip.
The main reason why people are hating on FCPX is, they don't know it or they feel they got dirty from Apple.

Get off to a good start, do the Ripple Training core FCP X video series. It'll get you up and running quickly and properly.

Yes Ben, I have started the training and am feeling pretty comfortable now with some of he technics.

I Thank everyone for their comments and feedback! I am sure i'll be asking more questions as I advance.

Thank you all.

The reason is... Apple had a very bad launch.

The 10.0.0 version of FCP X really was buggy and missed a LOT of functions and features.
It's still does, in a way, but the updates so far have made up a lot.

When it was released, I bought it. Tried it, and threw it away in anger. Really despised how many things worked.

To be honest, I'm still not fond of the way the program manages media. It doesn't always feel very transparant.

But after the 10.0.3 update, I decided to try it again.
I used it on a project. Cursed. Bounced my head. But had some 'aha!' moments.
After working on it for 2 weeks, going back to FCP 7 felt a bit backwards.

As other people said: learn it, maybe buy some tutorials.
Use it on a real project. And then give it your fair judgement.
For some people it will not do what they want in its current form. It still misses a lot of functions that FCP 7 had, and the way it works is genius and faster then FCP 7 in some ways (many ways), but slower in other ways (needing some work arounds).
I hope Apple keeps updating and upgrading the program. Everyone can help at this by sending feedback. It DOES get read. I think they have proven with their updates until now that they DO take the program serious for professionals.

Apple sort of brought this to themselves. They really botched the launch and the program really was not pro in a lot of ways at it's launch. BUT!
Most of the bad things you hear of FCP X are by people who haven't used it really throughout, and for a complete project. Some people haven't used it at all. They think a lot of things aren't possible with the program, while the truth is, you have to do a lot of things in a different way. Again, in some ways, once you 'get it', you will have some great moments, and some frustrating moments (if you are coming from FCP 7).
It's a pitty, but many of the bad things of FCP X is based on FUD and ignorance.

But the more I use X, the more I'm sure it's the future. I try to do all my personal projects in FCP X now, to learn more and more.
Larry Jordan said that in his feeling, when it was released, 18 months from the launch most editors would use it, and would have gone from FCP 7 to FCP X. The way Apple is currently adding features (and adding them in a GOOD way, look at how powerful their multi cam is!), I think he might have been right.

Look at iOS 1.0... Or - from what I've been told - FCP 1.0 ...

I don't know why it wasn't pro at the 10.0.0 release, I would say it was not as sophisticated as expected.

But you are right Final Cut Pro X received allot of negative judgment from users, like bad judgment of a movie which only a teaser aired .

Well, the first version did not even have XML or the Roles feature.
I love that you now have that Roles feature, it seems much more flexible then having your set tracks always. But it wasn't there at 10.0.0.
And without XML, no send to Color, and not that very good Color correction possibilities within FCP X (compared to Color in FCS 3), you just had to finish in FCP X what you started there.

Yes I agree but this still does not make "not Pro", if I compare After Effects with Smoke does this make After Effects not a Pro App?

Because the 10.0.0 version had no way of getting the data of your edit OUT of FCP X (except rendering a Quicktime out) it didn't fit in a professional workflow.
It has the tools to do some audio editing, and some color correction, but pretty basic in comparison with what FCS had and other packages have. But with no way to get the data out, you were stuck with finishing everything in FCP X.
Yes, it's all semantics, what is pro, what isn't? But admit, that FCP X in version 10.0.0 didn't fit in 99 procent of the professional workflows. If you were a one-man band doing EVERYTHING in FCP X, you could do your thing, but that's not how most professional productions are finished.

Hey, I'm not someone that sends everything to a post-production house either, but I can still admit that not having XML did a lot of damage in how well FCP X was accepted in professional workflows.
And considering how buggy 10.0.0 was, it was also pretty dangerous to have your edit locked in that program without getting it out.

It still has a huge install base. What happens if someone offers you a job at a post house that lives on FCP 7, and you don't know how to use it?
If you want to work in the "industry", you should be multilingual. Even if it might be a dead language.

(that was meant as answer to fcpguru's question about FCP7 training... messed it up somehow )

First of all, referring to 10.0.0 is ridiculous. Apple had said even then there was a ten year development plan for FCP X. That was a whole year ago folks. 10.0.1 gave FCPXML 1.0 and it talked to Resolve right away (LITE is free, too).

It was a pro app for pros a year ago. It's a pro app today. It's grown and evolved and will continue to for the next several years. Look at multicam, blows away anything else.

When you talk about "most professional productions", what specifically are you talking about? Professional events, broadcast, feature Hollywood films, feature indie films, short films, commercial and promo work, educational work? If you mention broadcast or Hollywood features, remember that's a tiny drop in the bucket of today's media production industry.

The majority of the work in the industry can very easily be done by FCP X. With the most minor of workarounds for a couple of issues, 10.0.0 was capable. 10.0.4 is today more than capable.

Any NLE can be learned in a short period of time. Learn what you need when an employer demands it. It's no big deal. This forum is to support FCPX users, so lets move forward with that.

I consult for many large clients, and half are in transition form 7 to X. I teach and half of all my FCPX students are seasoned professionals who love it.