Finally upgrading everything

Many pros are liking FCP X and many are loathing it. The best thing you can do is get the trial version and check it out for yourself. Adobe Premiere is quite similar to legacy FCP and the suite comes with After Effects, Speedgrade, and Encore DVD among others. Adobe also has trials you can play with.

Check out some tutorials to get a feel for the software.

Legacy FCP is EOL so I would say only buy it if the price is right and/or you absolutely need it.

If you want a really good camera check out Blackmagic. If you buy their cinema camera they'll throw a copy of Resolve your way for free. That's $$$.

Keep in mind, the latest version of ML won't even run legacy FCP. And... I was hesitant about X. I've grown to appreciate it.

That is not correct. I have FCP7 running on macs with OS 10.8.1.

MtD

Hmmm... Did you have to revert to an older OS to install it?

No. If you are trying to install FCS2 (FCP6) my understanding is the applications will work, but the installer requires Rosetta, which is not included in Mountain Lion. If you search these boards, you will see workarounds for this. I am not running FCS2, so can't personally verify this.

If you are trying to install FCS3 (FCP7), it will install, but you need to have FCP7 installed before FCP-X.

See this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4296452?answerId=19577567022#19577567022

and the kb article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4722

In my case, I have upgraded two computers to Mtn. Lion with FCP7 installed.

MtD

So, I other words FCP7 was ALREADY on your machine when you upgraded to the latest ML?

Yes.

MtD

Actually, I also did an install of FCP7 only on a brand new MacBook Air, that had 10.8.1 that I use in the field to ingest/back up Sony EXdcam SxS cards. No problem.

MtD

Not to beat this dead horse to glue... but... Won't there come a day when FCP7 will simply not work on the "latest" OS? That is, as Apple migrates i's OS to new iterations, legacy FCP apps will be too distant to emulate?

You're great with an imac 27, but I'd suggest holding off on the purchase until mid-late october. Check out the macrumors.com buyers guys, it says the current imac is about 500 days old. An update is probably coming soon.

After you get the imac, try the trial for fcpx for a month. Tons of tutorials on how to use it are online. Right now you can also get Adobe Creative Cloud for about $29/mo for the first year. This is the most affordable way to try all the editing systems and make your own decision. All workflows are different.

I'd completely skip working with FCS3/FCP7 though. Although it works on Mountain Lion, after working with X for a few months we now dread opening FCP7 now.

Hope this helps!