Apple announces Final Cut Express 4, slashes pricing

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Apple on Thursday unveiled Final Cut Express 4, a significant upgrade to its consumer-oriented video editing software based on Final Cut Pro 6, for a reduced price of just $199.



Final Cut Express 4 adds support for the latest AVCHD cameras, allows mixing of standard and high definition content on a single timeline, includes the ability to import iMovie '08 projects, and gives users access to hundreds of sophisticated FxPlug cinematic effects and filters.



"Almost a million digital filmmakers have made Final Cut their editing application of choice," said Rob Schoeben, Apple?s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "With the introduction of Final Cut Express 4, Apple makes it easy for anyone to join the rapidly growing community of Final Cut editors worldwide."



The new Open Format Timeline in Final Cut Express 4 allows users to mix and match DV, HDV and AVCHD material (only supported on Intel-based Macs), all in realtime using the same industry-leading editing and trimming tools found in Final Cut Pro.



Supporting both 1080i and 720p HD resolutions, Final Cut Express 4 will automatically perform the necessary scaling, cropping and frame rate adjustments. When starting projects from scratch, the new simplified setup automatically configures everything based on the first clip dropped on the Timeline.



Final Cut Express 4 also makes it easy to import iMovie '08 projects and enhance them with advanced editing capabilities such as multiple layers of video and graphics, picture in picture effects and animated titles. It includes over 50 new FxPlug filters, including Soft Focus, Vignette and Light Rays, with hundreds more available from a rapidly expanding FxPlug developer community.







With enhanced audio controls, users can automatically raise any clip to its maximum level without distortion using the new Soft Normalize and Gain controls. Final Cut Express 4 also features LiveType 2, which provides an intuitive environment for creating dynamic and fun animated titles and includes an extensive library of animated fonts, textures, templates and effects.



Final Cut Express 4 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 -- $100 less than the previous version -- through the Apple Store, Apple?s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Final Cut Express can upgrade to Final Cut Express 4 for just $99.







A list of full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Express 4 can be found at Apple's Final Cut Express website.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Very good deal on the upgrade
  • Reply 2 of 33
    royboyroyboy Posts: 458member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Very good deal on the upgrade





    Who's going to be the first to complain about the educator's price for it?
  • Reply 3 of 33
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Who's going to be the first to complain about the educator's price for it?



    You brought it up
  • Reply 4 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Who's going to be the first to complain about the educator's price for it?



    What exactly is there to complain about, I'd assume it's the standard 50% off software.



    No?
  • Reply 5 of 33
    Sweet! A new version that can import iMovie '08 projects and costs 1/3 less than the previous version. I can't wait to see what Apple is going to do with Aperture 2.0 and if it will go from $299 to $199. With prices this low people might move from iMovie to Final Cut Express and maybe even iPhoto to Aperture. Moving from iPhoto 6 and earlier to Aperture is a no-brainer for me, but iPhoto 7 might keep people from moving.
  • Reply 6 of 33
    Those of you who are going to enjoy the reduced price for this can thank me. The only reason Apple did this is because I just bought FCE last month
  • Reply 7 of 33
    royboyroyboy Posts: 458member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Solar View Post


    What exactly is there to complain about, I'd assume it's the standard 50% off software.



    No?





    No. With the price difference between educator price and regular price, most would opt for the regular price so that one would be eligible for the upgrade price for the next edition.
  • Reply 8 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    No. With the price difference between educator price and regular price, most would opt for the regular price so that one would be eligible for the upgrade price for the next edition.



    They would? Only if they weren't very good at math...



    With Education Discount:

    Final Cut Express 4.0 at 50%: $99

    Final Cut Express 5.0 at 50%: $99

    Total: $198



    Without Education Discount:

    Final Cut Express 4.0: $199

    Final Cut Express 5.0 upgrade: $99

    Total: $298



    If one already owns FCE 3.5, then the 4.0 and 5.0 upgrades would total $198.



    Am I missing something?
  • Reply 9 of 33
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by djames42 View Post


    Am I missing something?



    Yeah. On the Apple Store website the Academic version is $179. I don't know where the %50 number first came from, unless some schools/universities have special deals. I personally haven't seen %50 discounts on Apple stuff for a long time!



    Go to Amazon and you save almost that much in taxes...
  • Reply 10 of 33
    royboyroyboy Posts: 458member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Yeah. On the Apple Store website the Academic version is $179. I don't know where the %50 number first came from, unless some schools/universities have special deals. I personally haven't seen %50 discounts on Apple stuff for a long time!



    Go to Amazon and you save almost that much in taxes...





    With new updates, Apple is weaning the educators off of the 50 percent discounts of the past.
  • Reply 11 of 33
    quevarquevar Posts: 101member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Solar View Post


    What exactly is there to complain about, I'd assume it's the standard 50% off software.



    No?



    Apple has been slowly eliminating the nice education deals. Every past version of the OS had an education discount of $69 and normal price of $129. Leopard had an education discount of $116 and regular of $129. You could buy it from Amazon for $109.



    Now, with FCE, the regular price is $199 and education is $179. The price went down by $100 for non-education and up by $80 for education users.



    Apple has also gotten rid of all education discounts on iPods. This happened about two years ago.



    It's great that the prices are dropping for most people, but they prices are actually increasing significantly for education users. This strikes me as stupid since education is where people are learning to use computers and also happens to be an incredibly cost aware group.



    Is it true that education versions are not eligible for the upgraded price later?
  • Reply 12 of 33
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    With new updates, Apple is weaning the educators off of the 50 percent discounts of the past.



    Weaning always made me cry...
  • Reply 13 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bageljoey View Post


    Yeah. On the Apple Store website the Academic version is $179. I don't know where the %50 number first came from, unless some schools/universities have special deals. I personally haven't seen %50 discounts on Apple stuff for a long time!



    That makes a lot more sense then. It does seem silly that by saving $20, you lose out on the opportunity for upgrade pricing in the future. I'd probably opt to pay full-price then (although I get a corporate discount which is fairly generous on Apple Software: My copy of FCE 3.5 ran me $248).



    Quote:

    Go to Amazon and you save almost that much in taxes...



    Well not those of us who live in Washington
  • Reply 14 of 33
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Very good deal on the upgrade



    The upgrade pricing is the same as it was the last two times. The initial buy-in pricing is $100 lower though.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Solar View Post


    What exactly is there to complain about, I'd assume it's the standard 50% off software.



    No?



    Just go check for yourself, it's not that hard. I just looked and the edu pricing is $179 like the others were saying. The edu pricing has been complained about with the Leopard software, and it's looking like a trend given the reductions of edu discounts for hardware too. I don't think it makes that much sense to have a high academic pricing, though Final Cut Studio academic is still $699 rather than twice that. Maybe we can expect that to go away after the next update.
  • Reply 15 of 33
    Glad to see any update to the product. Reading about Final cut pro update earlier, and thinking that FCP has been updated twice with no FCX upgrades. Guess this is it.



    I also think they had to do something since those of us who wanted to the editing power of imovie 6 still feel left out of imovie 8 - so they dropped the price of FCX to give us a nudge? (of course FCX is still a big learning curve. I've had it for a few months now and still a long way form being an expert...)
  • Reply 16 of 33
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by johnmcboston View Post


    Glad to see any update to the product. Reading about Final cut pro update earlier, and thinking that FCP has been updated twice with no FCX upgrades. Guess this is it.



    I also think they had to do something since those of us who wanted to the editing power of imovie 6 still feel left out of imovie 8 - so they dropped the price of FCX to give us a nudge? (of course FCX is still a big learning curve. I've had it for a few months now and still a long way form being an expert...)



    FCE 3.5 was released last year, about mid-year. It was a real update with real feature improvements. Usually FCE gets an update several months after the regular Final Cut does.



    This thing finally supports AVCHD, a format that's had inexpensive consumer cameras for about a year now.
  • Reply 17 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by johnmcboston View Post


    (of course FCX is still a big learning curve. I've had it for a few months now and still a long way form being an expert...)



    Curious to know how you've gone about even being an amateur. I had Premiere Pro down moderately well and because the interface is similar, can do basic editing with Final Cut, but I'm having a real difficult time getting myself around even some of the intermediate functionality of the tool. Filters with keyframes for example. I'm also utterly lost when it comes to doing anything with Live Type (which to be honest was my primary reason for jumping from iMovie to FCE).
  • Reply 18 of 33
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by djames42 View Post


    Curious to know how you've gone about even being an amateur. I had Premiere Pro down moderately well and because the interface is similar, can do basic editing with Final Cut, but I'm having a real difficult time getting myself around even some of the intermediate functionality of the tool. Filters with keyframes for example. I'm also utterly lost when it comes to doing anything with Live Type (which to be honest was my primary reason for jumping from iMovie to FCE).



    I found that a decent book helps. I've never really been happy with Apple's documentation, but they did include a 45 minute walk-through video with FCE 3.5 that quickly goes over the basics.



    I had also bought and flipped though this book:

    Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Express HD (Apple Pro Training) (Paperback)

    by Diana Weynand (Author)
  • Reply 19 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by djames42 View Post


    That makes a lot more sense then. It does seem silly that by saving $20, you lose out on the opportunity for upgrade pricing in the future. I'd probably opt to pay full-price then (although I get a corporate discount which is fairly generous on Apple Software: My copy of FCE 3.5 ran me $248).







    Well not those of us who live in Washington



    That's OK. You make it up in property taxes.
  • Reply 20 of 33
    Soundtrack is no longer in final cut express! that sucks. and the student price went up. This is a big deal when you are looking at this for 100 students for the video and audio classes.
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