Hi there

I'm an Avid editor with almost no experience on FCP and I'm considering turning to the dark side (!) for a particular project. I have FCP 4.5 running on a G4 we use for admin but before we rush out and buy a new Mac Pro I'd be grateful if someone can answer a couple of questions on the colour corrector in 5.1.2:

1. Is there a built-in gamma control that lets you edit in a curves interface rather than sliders? Maybe it was there before and I was just too stupid to find it.

2. How well does the secondary colour correction perform?

Many thanks

Tony

1. Is there a built-in gamma control that lets you edit in a curves interface rather than sliders? Maybe it was there before and I was just too stupid to find it.

No, not stock. You can run Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse inside FCP, but what you want is not a standard feature. Somebody else might have a plug as well.

2. How well does the secondary colour correction perform?

I think pretty well, but understand if you put one 3-Way CC filter on to take care of primary, and then slap another 3-way with selection constraint (which is how you do secondary in FCP), you're not working in real time anymore. At least on my dual 2.0 G5. A current Mac Pro is a couple magnitudes fast than my machine though, it may do a lot more in RT.

1- No.

Nattress Film Effects has curves, although the interface is via sliders. nattress.com

There is also Final Touch SD or HD (FT HD is a lot more expensive), which gives you color correction that is more powerful than FCP or Avid. XML/EDL workflow is a pain, although this may change. FT is updated often, and I think they are working with Apple on this. EDL into FT actually gives you the flexibility to re-capture, which XML doesn't.

2- The secondary CC in FCP:
The quality is good.

Performance-wise, it is real-time until you blur the mask.

Thanks guys. I've checked out Color Finesse and I think that's the way to go because FT is off the budget radar. Lack of real-time playback isn't too much of an issue because I'm not under big time constraints on this project - rendering is an acceptable trade-off for the money saved over a Symphony Nitris!!!