iMovie versus Final Cut Pro

Hopefully lots of people will respond to this in additon to my comments. I've used both and stopped using FCP around version 5 (probably 5 years ago). I feel like now with the Advanced Tools in iMovie '11 you can go pretty darned far with so-called Avanced techniques. It can do a lot more than is obvious when you first start playing with it.

For home video with the time you've invested so far, stick with iMovie. For me it's all about speed. Not necessarily the tools that you're using. If I can import/edit/finish a project in a day with iMovie while my co-worker takes longer in FCP (not because it takes longer, but he likes to tweak and fine tune) then I think iMovie is the better choice. I like editing, but I don't think it should take longer than absolutely necessary. And it's good videos that get finished and published up to YouTube, rather than staying unfinished sitting in your Events Library.

I generally agree with Elikness, although I am learning FCP X.

It is a big learning curve, although it uses many of the same metaphors and visual cues that iMovie does, so the learning curve for actually editing is not so bad. The biggest part of the learning curve is that you have a lot of choices for codecs and formats and tweaking. It helps to have some understanding of all the choices and what they give you.

The biggest difference I see is if you are doing longer movies, FCP handles them much better. Rendering is done as you go in the background rather than all in one pass at the end, as in iMovie. You also may be able to get slightly better quality, but this is dependent on your skill. Just like an expensive Nikon camera can take better photos, but only in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.

If you go to FCP, I would invest in some training. I have bought some training from Larry Jordan in the form of a series of Videos. He has about 10 hours of video training.

If most of your movies are 20 minutes or less in length, I would say stick with iMovie, unless you are finding certain things you need that iMovie will not do.

http://www.izzyvideo.com/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial/

Above are some free tutorials that are done by someone who has a talent for making the complicated seem fairly easy.

I bought FCPX and like it, but the truth is, iMovie has a lot going for it. In general I agree with the two previous posts. I think doing short videos and putting them on YouTube is fun and is easy to do in iMovie. I upgraded to iMovie 11 and can really recommend that step, as iMovie 11 has some great audio editing features.

Hugh

Final Cut Pro has been discontinued and instead Apple now offer Final Cut Pro X which also replaces iMovie.

A first look, from MacWorld:

http://p2tre.emv3.com/HS?a=ENX7Cql_0DkE8SA9MKJC4CznGHxKLGHtBvcStGb5lw8W0bBhOG5mp qVsje_Hhe-pzVPz

Larry Jordan on Final Cut Pro X:

http://www.larryjordan.biz/goodies/blog.html

And of course from David Pogue:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/technology/personaltech/23pogue.html?_r=1

and his follow-up after talking to Apple:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/professional-video-editors-weigh-in-on -final-cut-pro-x/