Hi all. Well first, I'm now an owner of a new 2Ghz PowerMac and pretty stoked about it having used Vegas for the last few years on a PC. The PC's going on sale as soon as I've migrated ;) Now I'm looking at Final Cut Studio, but was wondering how often Apple revs their software? I see the last one was April this year, so would I be safe in assuming that it'd be pretty safe until April next year?

Don't want to fork out the HUGE sum for FCStudio only to have it revved in the next month or so.

Cheers
Aaron

They seem to update every year or two. Version Tracker has a release history back to 2.0.

IIRC, they announced FCP5 at MacWorld last January but didn't actually ship until perhaps March. But really the best thing to do is to look at the current feature set and decide if it will do what you want. If so then go for it. If you keep waiting for the next release you'll never buy! OTOH, if there's no big need to buy now then it can't hurt to wait another 3 months (or whatever) to see what the latest and greatest thing is.

Aaron,

Can I ask why are you migrating from vegas to FCP? I use both systems, and, while I like FCP and MAC computers in general, I think the workflow of vegas is MUCH better.

I don't want to open a "which one is better" battle, but I am curious about your reasons to switch.

Don't forget if you buy Final Cut Pro now, when a new version gets released you get to upgrade for a special upgrade price, but also no sense in spending full price and then the "special upgrade price" shortly after.
Just my $0.02

Aaron,

Can I ask why are you migrating from vegas to FCP? I use both systems, and, while I like FCP and MAC computers in general, I think the workflow of vegas is MUCH better.

I don't want to open a "which one is better" battle, but I am curious about your reasons to switch.

Jean-Phillipe - my reasons were several, not all to do with video editing and some of them quite subjective.

1) Been using, and programming PC's and Windows for many years, and am sick to death of the problems I've had - My XP machine is ready for the old reinstall from scratch now as things just don't work right anymore. Since getting my Mac Mini, I've really liked it a lot. OSX is far from perfect, don't get me wrong, but I tend to like how the Mac OS and software works. It seems more usable - Expose etc is nice, things are more streamlined. The Mac is slick. Maybe it's because I come from a games programming/graphics background where slick means a lot to me?

2) I was personally disappointed with Vegas 6. They added a couple of little features but really nothing that I found worthwhile. Their media management is still appalling IMO. The new Media Manager is OK for managing your combined pool of media, but project media management is subpar. I'm sure 7 will be better, but I've just about done my dash with it. Anyone want to buy Vegas 6 + DVD? :)

3) I am looking at moving out of my employment (Software Engineer on Symantec Ghost) and moving into media production/writing/anything non programming ;) over the next couple of years, and sort of realised that the more skills I have the better it will be in order to get little jobs to supplement my income. FCP will serve me better than Vegas as far as experience goes. (Avid I know would probably be best, but I don't like Avid - no style - and as Chris Hurd always says, 'It's the one that feels best in your hands that you should go for' :) ) Also, if I hire myself out for little projects, FCP again will be ahead of Vegas I think - even if it's just in other's eyes.

4) I have never found a decent, easy to use Titling application on the PC (I've tried numerous ones) so when I found Livetype, I was quite impressed.

5) I do bits and pieces of work (Shooting, editing, writing) for a friend who is starting up a production company, and while we get things done in Vegas, I think Motion and Livetype will seriously enhance what we can do with the small budget and time that we have - and Soundtrack will expand our audio side too - build in Noise Reduction AFAIK.

6) I currently have a Mac Mini for most computer activities, and my PC just for video editing. Will be nice to have just one machine again.

As far as workflow goes, that's something I'm willing to gamble on (Have not used FCP or FCE that much). I have always liked Vegas' workflow, it's pretty good, but I just think it's time for me to move on.

Final Cut Pro 5 is at a point where it just plain works briliantly in most cases. The additions they'll make in future releases will most likely not be necessary for you, but an optional upgrade. The 2 biggest improvements from 4.5 to 5 were multicam editing and HDV. Need those? My point is, you'll be fine if you get it now for at least a couple of years...

Kevin