07-23-2009, 02:39 PM

Well, seems that the new FCS kind of slipped in without much fanfare...

Apple - Final Cut Studio

Apple - Final Cut Studio - Whats New

Looking at the specs, seems they made some nice changes, and beginning to support BluRay in FCP7 and Compressor (although DVDStudio PRo doesn't seem to do BluRay yet).

Although appears to be nice improvements, not sure it'll be worth it for me to upgrade as I'm perfectly happy with FCS2 atm. But they have cut the price making the bundle now $999 (I wonder if that's a permanent price or a temporary price for the new release? I know it's not the upgrade price as that's listed as $299)

edit note: Heck, the academic price for it is $899, why in the world would someone buy the academic when it's only $100 less then the regular version?!?!?! not worth it like it used to be)

07-23-2009, 03:04 PM

I too have mixed feelings about it. After two years without an update, the new features seem to fall a little short, but that's only because they're not really anything I'd use a lot. I'm at a pretty basic level where I wouldn't need more codecs or need to iChat with producers, directors, etc. The new speed change feature and the ability to continue working while exporting sound cool, but it's not quite enough to make me buy a whole new version. I just got FCS3 last summer.

My only concern is how this might affect my certification. Does anyone know if I'll have to update my Level One certification as well? I'm in the middle of studying for the Level Two certification... will this update complicate things?

The price drop is good news and I hope the next one will be even cheaper. I had no choice but to get the academic version last time and I was wondering... just what are the consequences of using the academic version commercially? What constitutes "commercial" use? How would anyone know?

I'll probably save my money for the next version, and maybe then Blu-Ray will be more pervasive and Macbook Pro's will have Blu-Ray players.

07-23-2009, 03:13 PM

I'm not even sure how long this version has been out. FCS2 was for sale in the apple store I know back in April (FCS2 is what has Final Cut Pro 6, so if you have FCP 6, then you have FCS2)

I do most of my heavy duty stuff on my mac pro, so it wouldn't be a huge deal to add bluray to it - but even with blu ray beginnings, most of my HD stuff is for me so I just plunk it on my mac mini that acts as a home theater. The school I work for - when I do the grad videos - they don't usually have a hd player of any sort at home so SD DVD is my primary output media when I need to output to disc.

07-23-2009, 06:57 PM

I was so happy for the tweet i got this morning about it, Since i was in the area i drooped by the apple store to pick a update up but they didn't have it yet, wont till monday. So i ordered it a few mins ago, only disappointing thing is they didn't intergrade shake in anyway, i was looking forward into that. Main reason im buying is because i know its going to be sweet along with snow leopard, and the price for upgrading isnt anything to what im use to so in my opinion im getting the bang for my buck. Producer view with ichat is sick too beats using filemail.com to send the video

07-24-2009, 03:46 PM

Oops, yeah, I meant I have FCS2. I wish FCS3 would get a dramatic price drop like Shake did.

07-25-2009, 06:00 PM

So is the new version considered Final Cut Studio 3?

07-25-2009, 10:05 PM

Very good question - I haven't noticed any references to version numbers. It's definitely not FCS2, so it can't be advertised as that - otherwise those of us who own it deserve a free patch to bring us to the same level.

07-26-2009, 12:06 AM

I haven't seen any reference to numbers either. I just want to know what to call it. lol

07-26-2009, 04:09 PM

It is FCS 3 it says final cut studio version 3 on the serial number sticker and on the disks it self it says version 3, thats about the only evidence, very nice though i have unboxing pics on flickr and comparisons with the different New ProRes codecs, file size and data rates ..... Flickr: Grand Productions' Photostream