TrishV Loc: Now living on Whidbey Island, WA

Is anyone out there using Apple's Final Cut Pro program? I am thinking of getting a new laptop and they are offering this program so I was wondering how it compares with Adobe Photoshop which I use now? Would love to hear your comments.
Thank you.

Saxman47 Loc: Lorton, VA

Final Cut Pro is for film editing and production. Compare it to Adobe Premiere, not Photoshop.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Photoshop (bundled with its siblings, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic) is Adobe's image editor. Premiere Pro is Adobe's video editor.

I use Final Cut Pro as my advanced video editor. It is super-fast on the Mac, both because Apple optimizes the hardware and software to work together, and because the workflow is slicker than Premiere Pro or Davinci Resolve. But Resolve is also very quick on Apple hardware, while Premiere Pro is still a beta product on the M1 Macs. It does run in emulation (Rosetta 2) on the M1, just slower than those other video editing apps.

There is no Apple-branded software that equates to or competes directly with the Adobe Photography Bundle. However, you can combine Apple Photos with the Raw Power Plug-in and Serif Affinity Photo to do much of what the Adobe suite does. Raw Power and Affinity Photo are available in the Apple App Store.

TrishV Loc: Now living on Whidbey Island, WA

Okay thanks.

TrishV Loc: Now living on Whidbey Island, WA

Do you know if final Cut has things like dehaze? I really like that in PS. Many thanks for your comprehensive answer.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Bill Burkholder wrote that Adobe's video editor is Premiere Pro. That's true. It is the one you rent. Adobe also has Premiere Elements that you buy. Premiere Elements does have a dehaze effect that Premiere Pro does not.

Both Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements have versions for Apple and Microsoft systems. So I think that means that the most common video editing choices for Mac owners is iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Elements and Premiere Pro. Of course each has unique strengths and weakness.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Something to know if you bought, or are about to buy, a new Mac: On the new M1 (non-Intel, Apple Silicon system-on-chip powered) Macs released last Fall, most of the Adobe apps are not yet running natively. They do run quite well in Rosetta 2, the translation environment for Intel applications, but more slowly than they will when Adobe completes its rewriting of the apps for Apple Silicon.

DaVinci Resolve is another video editing tool that plays extremely well on Macs and PCs. It has long been the tool of filmmakers for color correction (color grading in film-speak).

TrishV Loc: Now living on Whidbey Island, WA

I only do photos am not into videos but thanks for the input.

TrishV Loc: Now living on Whidbey Island, WA

I am not into videos I only edit photos and it is a new Mac Air that I am interested in purchasing that is why I was asking bout Final Cut Pro as I wanted to find out more about it, didn't learn much when I went online. Many thanks for your input.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I forgot about the M1. I've never had an Apple product, so continue in ignorance!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

M1 is a huge advance. It is a *radically* different architecture with too many advantages to list here. (Many YouTubers have it covered.)

We bought the M1 MacBook Air for our college student. I helped him set it up with apps and data from his old 2012 MacBook Pro. He runs Premiere Pro, Photoshop, MS 360 (Office), Blender, Illustrator, After Effects, Resolve, Final Cut Pro, and the usual browsers and email and utilities.

The speed blew me away! Forget what you know about RAM and processors and battery life. Reviewers say this new Air smokes every Intel-powered laptop *in its price class,* while using no fans.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

"this new Air smokes"

I look forward to the day that I can process videos as fast as I process photos. For a while I need to wear out my i7, 16GB, 1/2TB SSD laptop. 8K video is about here. That will take some computer muscle.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

There is a guy processing 8K Canon video on an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD internal. If at all interested in it, check out MaxTech YouTube Channel. He replaced his $16,000 Mac Pro with a Mini.

kenpic Loc: Edmonds, WA

I have a good friend here in Seattle who works in video all the time. He says that many of the video professionals he knows have migrated to DaVinci. Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve has a paid Studio version and a free version, all available for Mac, Windows, or Linux. A common question we are asked is what you get with the Studio version and if it's worth the investment. The free version is robust on its own and may be enough for many users.Jun 15, 2020

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'm a dyed in the wool Final Cut Pro addict, until it comes to color grading. I'll use Resolve for that when the footage is really difficult to grade.

My son uses all three apps, because he's a UNCG media student and works on campus editing videos. But he, too, prefers Final Cut. He uses Premiere and Resolve at work.

About a decade ago, Apple made an abrupt change to Final Cut Pro from version 7 to Final Cut Pro X version 10.0. The interface was so shockingly different that many users gave up and went to Premiere Pro or Avid Media Composer.

I used iMovie 1 to iMovie 6HD for eight years to produce corporate training videos before trying the ill-fated Final Cut Express 4. I did two productions with that, and went back to iMovie. iMovie is like Premiere Elements in purpose... It's a stripped-down editor. Still, it is good enough for many simple projects.

I switched to FCPX from iMovie in 2014 at about version 10.1, so I didn't have that shocking interface change from FCP 7 to FCPX 10. Final Cut Pro is now at version 10.5.1, and they dropped the 'X' from the name a while back. This version is sleek, slick, fast, feature rich, and intuitive. The only problem? It does not run on Windows.