Apple updates Final Cut Pro X, adds more features

Apple continues to bring some of the features found in Final Cut Pro 7 back into the fold of Final Cut X. Today, Apple has updated Final Cut to version 10.0.3, bringing multi-cam editing, advanced chroma keying, media relink, Photoshop layer support, XML 1.1 import and export enhancements, and broadcast monitoring all into the fold.

From Apple PR:

Apple® today released Final Cut Pro® X v10.0.3, a significant update to its revolutionary professional video editing application, which introduces multicam editing that automatically syncs up to 64 angles of video and photos; advanced chroma keying for handling complex adjustments right in the app; and enhanced XML for a richer interchange with third party apps and plug-ins that support the fast growing Final Cut Pro X ecosystem. Available today as a free update from the Mac® App Store™, Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 also includes a beta of broadcast monitoring that supports Thunderbolt devices as well as PCIe cards.

It’s pretty obvious that Apple is still listening to professional editors’ complaints about Final Cut Pro X. A lot of editors were extremely annoyed about the lack of support for many of these features when Apple made Final Cut Pro X available to editors last June.

The question at this point is whether or not these features are adding enough to stop editors from switching to competing products like Avid and Adobe Premiere. Some pretty hefty customers, like Bunmin/Murray Productions, have already moved to Avid because they felt that Apple didn’t understand its long term needs any longer. It’s an uphill battle at this point for Apple, and some are worried that the damage is already done.

However, updates of this magnitude will go a long way towards convincing Final Cut Pro fans to stick around a little bit longer and see how this all plays out before making the jump to competing products.

We’ll have more on this shortly, so stay tuned. You can also get more info directly from Apple.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.