For nan past 2 weeks, I’ve been editing successful nan newest type of Final Cut Pro for nan iPad. For galore professionals, nan original merchandise of this app past twelvemonth missed nan mark. Its devices person conscionable been excessively constricted to usage connected a regular basis. The caller type doesn’t needfully alteration that — but contempt my galore frustrations, I’m yet discovering nan joyousness of utilizing it.
The caller type of nan app, confusingly named “Final Cut Pro for iPad 2” (it is for each existent iPads, not nan iPad 2), came retired this week. And possibly nan biggest caller characteristic successful this year’s merchandise isn’t wholly a Final Cut Pro feature: it’s a brand-new app that integrates pinch it.
The caller Final Cut Camera is simply a standalone app for your iPhone that offers precocious camera controls. If you’ve seen nan Blackmagic app aliases nan recently released Kino app, you’ll cognize what to expect: peaking, manual focusing, and audio metering. You conscionable won’t beryllium capable to adhd civilization LUTs for illustration you tin successful nan different two.
The Final Cut Camera app tin beryllium utilized successful unison pinch Final Cut Pro connected nan iPad to grounds Live Multicam sessions pinch footage streaming successful from up to 4 iPhones aliases iPads. In Final Cut connected nan iPad, you presume nan domiciled of director. You tin show footage coming from iPhones, zoom in, and alteration nan achromatic balance, attraction mode, and much connected nan fly. I tin spot this caller characteristic being peculiarly celebrated for video podcasts.
Final Cut Camera is telling maine each that reddish worldly is measurement excessively overexposed and I should set my backgrounds.
The previews you’re seeing are compressed, but they still look great. Once you extremity nan signaling session, nan full-quality files get transferred complete to nan iPad moving Final Cut Pro and rendered. The full process is simply a batch faster than I anticipated. My 10-minute convention pinch 3 iPhones was disposable for editing minutes later. A caller transportation parameter model connected nan apical of nan UI shows you nan progress.
There’s 1 upgrade I’d emotion to spot for this characteristic successful nan future: unrecorded editing. Currently, you’ll still request to extremity nan signaling first earlier syncing up each files and jumping into nan edit.
Multicam support is simply a awesome caller feature, but it contrasts pinch really small other Apple has done to amended nan Final Cut Pro for iPad experience. The standout characteristic successful this year’s update is outer difficult thrust support. That’s important — this characteristic was oddly absent past year. But its summation instantly reminded maine of really poorly Final Cut Pro for iPad (and iPadOS) handles record management.
All of your media files person to unrecorded wrong nan FCP Library files, and that aforesaid room record has to beryllium stored connected either nan soul aliases outer drive. That intends you can’t divided your media crossed aggregate drives aliases unreality storage. One broadside effect of this method is that it intends you’re conscionable perpetually duplicating files from 1 spot to another.
The M4 iPad Pro comes pinch support for Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 connectivity.
And location are different issues that haven’t changed from past year. For example, you still can’t import complete folders into Final Cut Pro, conscionable individual files. And erstwhile they’re imported, you still can’t shape nan files into abstracted folders aliases bins for illustration “A-roll,” “B-roll,” “Music,” aliases “Graphics.”
Another caller characteristic that’s unsocial to nan iPad type of Final Cut Pro is Live Drawings. Using an Apple Pencil, you tin tie animations straight onto your clips. Apple’s latest Pencil Pro tricks are supported here, but speech from that, there’s not overmuch to do pinch nan Pencil Pro itself. I wish location was a measurement to programme nan haptic compression to do thing much connected nan editing beforehand — possibly selecting aggregate clips while hovering, aliases conscionable make it a right-click. I consciousness for illustration that would beryllium useful and would velocity up moving pinch a pencil.
There are still a batch of superior video editing features that I’m waiting connected Apple to add: compound clips, folders, accommodation layers, station stabilization, coloring devices for illustration curves, task sharing betwixt machines, nan expertise to adhd caller LUTs, 360 video support, entity tracking, linear keyframes — nan database goes connected and on. If you publication my review from past year, you’ll find nan nonstop aforesaid database there.
All of those missing things really drawback you disconnected defender erstwhile you are successful nan flow. Ultimately, I recovered myself making imaginative decisions based connected bad package limitations.
Meanwhile, nan marketplace for mobile video editing apps is much competitory than ever. CapCut has been highly celebrated among TikTokers. “Why I’m switching to DaVinci” videos are each complete my YouTube feed. And folks still stan nan OG iPad app Lumafusion. In fact, 3 of nan features I desperately request are already connected nan DaVinci’s iPad app.
The M4 iPad Pro moving Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.
But moreover aft trying each of nan different apps I conscionable listed and moreover pinch each my vexation pinch nan missing features, I support coming backmost to Final Cut connected nan iPad. Because location is 1 point Apple is doing correct here, and that’s nan wide experience.
Apple calls this a “touch-first” app, and I yet understand what that means. Once you’re past nan learning curve and erstwhile you get a bent of nan controls and erstwhile you’re alert of its limitations, you commencement to really bask it and person fun. Apple isn’t trying to replicate nan Final Cut desktop acquisition — it’s building toward a caller one. And you tin spot successful nan measurement you interact pinch nan jog instrumentality and nan measurement that nan sidebar comes successful truthful you tin edit pinch your near hand.
I recovered that utilizing nan Final Cut Pro pinch my hands is by acold nan astir immersive measurement to edit. It’s each correct location astatine your fingertips, literally. There is thing astir this much tangible attack that I’m starting to find charming, moreover if it’s not arsenic businesslike arsenic a rodent and keyboard.
If Apple tin cheque disconnected those easy wins, past its imagination of a tin and touch-first Final Cut Pro could really thrive.
Photography by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge