Final Cut Pro X under fire from professionals

June 24, 2011 By Molly McHugh

Final Cut Pro X fails to impress advanced users, in what may be regarded as an uncharacteristically negative Apple product launch.

Apple introduced Final Cut Pro X, the upgrade for its editing software. Many have welcomed it with open arms, calling it revolutionary and much-welcomed update, but there are also some very legitimate complaints. For the most part, these criticisms come from professional film editors, many of which won’t affect the average user.

The New York Times’ David Pogue outlined the main issues in detail, which you can find here if you want a thorough look at what extremely advanced Final Cut Pro buffs will likely be frustrated by. In short, however, the missing elements are the absence of multicamera editing, external video monitoring, and EDL and XML imports/exports. The backup application disk is also gone. Many users are incensed by the inability to move former Final Cut Pro projects over the new version for further editing as well.

Industry veterans’ opinions run the gamut and include everything from praise for the product as well as extremely harsh rejection (Walter Biscardi of Creative Cow’s comment “All in all the worst product launch I’ve ever seen from Apple or pretty much any software manufacturer” has been making the rounds). Perhaps most revealing are the user reviews, ranging everywhere from one to five stars, but ultimately pinning Final Cut Pro X at two and a half stars – certainly not the initial impression Apple was hoping for.

And just to add intrigue to insult, Apple is being accused of censoring some of its user reviews from the Mac App Store. 9to5Mac noticed shortly after the launch, as particularly unflattering comments continued to roll in, there were suddenly no reviews available for Final Cut Pro X. All other products in the Mac App Store didn’t experience any such glitch, making the absence of this particular user feedback enough to raise a few eyebrows. They’ve since returned, but it’s enough to make you wonder if Apple’s seriously feeling the heat. The company isn’t exactly used to ill-received product launches (see: Steve Jobs’ outrage over MobileMe’s failure).

Showing 5 comments

e. Slapton at 6:50am 25th June 2011 As a person who uses Final Cut for work, this seems like a downgrade to cater to more casual users. Sorry, that's what a Final Cut Lite should be for. The current version didn't need a major overhaul, in my opinion, but maybe others would disagree.
1. Adam at 8:59am 26th June 2011 I AGREE! If it just would have gone 64 bit, fixed some glitches, called it fcp 8, I would have been more than happy. The fact it wasn't designed to open past projects is insulting to anyone who used fcp prior to X. It's a clear message apple is done with professionals. It sucks that when people called it iMovie pro, people defended it like that wasn't true. Look at iMovie, look at fcp X. If that's not the pro iMovie, what would be the pro iMovie?
Ernest Davis at 5:25am 25th June 2011 FInal Cut Pro (Lite) to save face?
David Stevens at 2:57am 25th June 2011 I can only understand that they where going for something to reach out to the general public and intermediate users. For a long time this was a great program but it wasn't used by some of the bigger companies. Now you are able to do stuff from small studios, and even projects right out of your home that give you capabilities to do things you weren't able to do five years ago. I would have to guess there biggest flaw was not researching the correct demograghy. Otherwise, personally there are amazing updates to FCP but there are a few things I'd like updated in a new version when it comes out. And with all the pressure and critics, it may be sooner. :-) D Stevens
Mike Dunn at 9:55pm 24th June 2011 Maybe they were trying to make is easier for beginners. I know they dumbed down iMovie, so maybe they are dumbing this down to fill the small gap they created. I'd assume pissing off the professionals who use this wasn't smart.