Review: Apple Final Cut Pro fights on

— -- In June, Apple stunned the video community with a dramatic overhaul of its beloved Final Cut Pro editing software. The company basically started over again with an all-new interface that many longtime users said resembled the entry-level video program iMovie.

The noise was loud as many pro editors threatened to stop using Apple software to edit video and to move to rival Adobe and its Premiere Pro instead.

Apple, which says FCP X has found many fans, is continuing to push forward with the software, today offering an update — 10.0.3 — one with two major revisions:

— Multi-camera editing. The videographer can shoot the same scene on many different cameras, for multiple views, and put them all together really easily . Like a TV director, the video editor can choose which scene to use by clicking through, for instance, to camera #1, camera #2 and camera #3. This was possible, sort of, in previous editions of Final Cut, but not like now. This is major.

— Improved chroma-key ("green screen") support. You can shoot your scene in front of a green or blue screen, knock out the background in Final Cut Pro and replace it with something else in seconds, with a swiftness and precision that wasn't there before.

Despite the controversy, I happen to be a big fan of FCP X. It's perfect for what I do — short journalism videos. FCP X's big advantage over the previous version — Final Cut Pro 7 — is its speed. Most times, during editing, FCP 7 would slow down to "render," seemingly forever.

The big problem, usually, was mixing and matching footage from different cameras. FCP 7 demanded footage to be in similar formats — or at least processed that way before entering FCP.

In FCP X, I can mix and match footage from cameras as diverse as Canon's 5D Mark II and 60D digital SLRs to the iPhone and the compact mirrorless Samsung NX 200 with no slowdown whatsoever. Even if the interface looks like iMovie, I don't care —FCP X does the job for me, and quite well.

We generally shoot most Talking Tech and Talking Your Tech USA TODAY videos with a minimum of three cameras, because it offers so much more than the standard "talking head" interview. Three cameras give us a good shot of the subject, the interviewer, and the two of us talking. Watch any good TV news/interview program, like 60 Minutes or Nightline, and their pieces tend to be shot the same way — except they usually add in another camera or two as well.

In the past, the wonderful $149 Plural Eyes plug-in from Singular Software enabled editors to easily "sync" the three cameras together by using cues from the audio tracks.

In launching FCP X, Apple added a similar tool — a "synchronize clips" tab that worked sometimes, other times not as well.

What you couldn't do with either is get a visual window of your various camera shots in one place or switch back and forth, like a TV director, into the project.

In my limited tests of FCP X 10.0.3 over the last two days I've used the "Multicamera" option several times. It takes a good deal of trial and error, and some knowledge of the workarounds, but the end result is wonderful.

Here's what you've got to know to make it work as advertised.

—Begin by importing the footage, and clicking "Multicamera clip" in the file menu.

— Like Plural Eyes, Apple wants to sync up the various cameras (you can use up to 9 cameras) by using the audio to line them up. But what if, say, you have great sound on camera #1, but the other cameras are using the natural sound provided by their internal (and usually very lousy) microphones? If so, you don't do as well. You will need to put a microphone — a shotgun, a lavalier — anything, to help each camera record sound if you want Apple's Multicamera option to perform at its best.

— Apple offers other options beyond audio sync. The first is the Timecode feature only offered in the most expensive pro cameras that generates numbers directly into the video file. Option two is to use the time settings in your cameras. Make sure, for instance, it's set to the correct date and time, and have all the cameras time coded that way. Another good option is to clap your hands at the beginning of the scene, to resemble the Hollywood "clapper" who uses the clapboard as a visual cue for editors to line up the different scenes. In the software, make a visual marker (hit M on the keyboard) on each clip by the clap, and line them up that way.

In the video that accompanies this review we shot on four cameras — a 5D for the close-up, a second 5D with a wide angle lens, the Samsung NX200 for an ultra closeup and just for fun — a GoPro camera for ultra-ultra wide angle, from the ceiling. Take a look at see how I switched back and forth between cameras really easily.

Now let's talk about chroma-key. FCP X had a simple green screen option before. Now it's added refinements for a more precise image.

I recorded the video in front of a green linen and lit it with one light.

The green screen had visible creases in the linen —something that's supposed to hurt in chroma-key editing, making the effect less even. And there was a shadow behind me on the green, caused by the one light setup.

To switch from green background to images from Hawaii, New Zealand and British Columbia, I went into the FCP X Effects Browser, chose the "Keyer" effect, and with one click, knocked out the green. And the linen creases. And the shadow.

What's new is an option to really refine the effect, with a wheel tool that offers better color rendering. My jeans at first looked purple and my black sweater blue. But with a few clicks, they regained their correct color. But putting the pictures of Hawaii, New Zealand and British Columbia underneath the video clip, on another portion of the timeline, I was able to shift my background from green to something quite exotic.

The new version of FCP X is still missing some baffling things. The most notable: for a program that wants to appeal to consumers, why would you still not offer the ability to create chapter menus on DVDs? (Which was possible on Final Cut 7.) Apple offers a workaround by doing it in the $49.99 add-on Compressor, which lets you save videos in different formats, but come on guys — how hard can this addition really be?

In my travels, I still talk to many editors who won't even consider FCP X. Learning a new video program can take quite some time, and yes, it's more comfortable to work with the old, but for a certain type of editor — one who uses different camera formats all the time, wants to speed up the editing process and have fun with multiple camera angles that can be easily and quickly put together — you should give FCP X a try.

Apple offers a free 30-day trial at apple.com/finalcutpro.

Readers — I'd love to hear from you on your experiences with FCP X. Leave a comment here and let's talk video!