After roughly eight years of using Adobe Premiere Pro as our preferred NLE system, a few months ago we made the transition to Final Cut Pro X. This was not an easy decision, we debated amongst ourselves and as a result came up with many pros and cons for staying with or leaving Adobe Creative Cloud. We found that there were really two debates taking place when we discussed leaving Creative Cloud: firstly, the hardware debate of making the switch from PCs to Macs, and secondly the software debate of making the switch from Premiere Pro to Final Cut X.
There are two parts to the story, so be sure to read both. This is a professional business and they explain why they made the switch from PC to Mac, and from Premiere to Final Cut Pro.
Interesting story, especially in that hardware was part of their decision. I’m exclusively Mac based (forevah) and use Avid. I disagree that Avid is more complex at managing media, but I think the “more pro than most people need” is an image problem on Avid’s part. Nonetheless, it’s been great to see FCP X’s rejuvination after it’s terrible debut.
That said, in the NYC reality / news / documentary world, Avid remains the standard at large companies, and Premiere has virtually wiped out FCP (old & new) in all other situations. As an Apple supporter, I’d love to see FCP get back to where it was, as the leader in the indie & low-budget pro editing world, but at the moment they are rapidly falling behind. (A major sign of that is that the editing & filmmaking schools are all switching from FCP, and even Avid, to Premiere).
Premiere gained a big surge when FCP X debuted, and that surge seems to be even growing stronger. I think a big part of the reason for this is that after FCP 7 was scrapped, everyone (including me) felt totally burned, and no matter what Apple does, it’s hard to beat the image that Avid & Adobe have as being dedicated to their products for the longterm. (Let’s not even mention the sad demise of another one of my Apple faves, Aperture).