Nikon Falls Short in Final Cut Pro X Support

Only the Nikon D90, D3100, Coolpix P500, and Coolpix P9100 make the list of supported still cameras on Apple's just released Final Cut Pro X (a strange selection to be sure: it should have been D90, D7000, and D3s IMHO, which would have also given implicit D5000, D5100, and D300s support). For Canon, they list 5DII, 7D, T3i, and PowerShot G12 and SX230HS. For Olympus, nothing. For Panasonic, the G3, GH2, and LX-5 make the list. For Sony the NEX-5 and VG10 are there. That doesn't mean that other cameras won't work, it only means that Apple hasn't tested them. It's likely that this list will grow over time and that issues with particular compression schemes in individual models will be added to Apple's support list.

Final Cut Pro X is turning the serious video world upside down at the moment. It is so radically different, it's a bit like replacing Capture NX2 with Lightroom. Oh wait, we did that. Essentially, all pro work flows centered around FCP 7, the previous version, just broke if you update. The whole workflow design is different, as FCP X is based upon a metadata focus (like Lightroom and Aperture are for stills). Plug-ins and other goodies need to be redone, too.

On the good news side, it does look like Apple did their Apple simplifying thing to something that was getting seriously complicated. While I'm sure there will be people who complain about missing, broken, and just-plain-different features, my quick take is that this was a much-needed rethink of how a serious video workflow should be handled. Still not perfect, by any means. But better in many respects.

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