The Final Cut Pro X update is now available to download from the Mac App Store.
Ahead of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, kicking off next week in Las Vegas, Apple has announced a couple of big new features coming to its Final Cut Pro X 10.4.1professional video editing package.
ProRes RAW
The first is ProRes RAW. Just like with photos, the raw data coming off a camera sensor, while bigger, is also much richer and more flexible. From it, you can manipulate exposure and color to create far better, clearer, and more vibrant imagery. It's great for fixing up mistakes made at capture, but also for fine tuning even well-captured video before rendering. And it's especially great for high dynamic range (HDR) workflows, which is the next big leap forward in video.
(As a bonus, you can use ProRes RAW to archive higher quality footage at smaller file sizes, making your backup process much more efficient.)
Apple is offering both ProPres RAW and ProRes RAW HQ formats, so you can choose just how much compression vs. file size you want to work with. Apple is promising high performance for both, though, making RAW editing a real option on a wider range of Macs than ever before.
ProRes RAQ uses variable data rates, so images with greater detail or grain will get less compression but preserve higher fidelity.
Apple is also working with Atomos, so you can connect to a Sumo 19 or Shogun Inferno to get real time ProRes RAW right from your camera's sensor, and with DJI, so the Zenmuse X7 camera paired with the Inspire 2 drone can record ProRes RAW... from the sky.
Closed Captioning
As much as my inner nerd loves ProRes RAW, it's Apple's continual push towards supporting and evangelizing accessibility that continues to impress me most.
With the new Final Cut Pro X, you can create captions from scratch or import them from an existing file, and they'll be automagically attached to your video or audio clip.
You can edit them right in FCPX, and they'll stay connected to your clips so if you make changes, even in the final stages of your project, the captions will stay where they're supposed to be. It'll even warn you about overlaps, bad characters, bad formatting, and more.
And, when you're ready, you can export captions in CEA-608 and/or iTT formats, either embedded or as a sidecar file. And you can send them straight to YouTube or Vimeo, or to Compressor projects and iTunes Store packages.
And more!
Also included in the Final Cut Pro X update is enhanced export and a new Roles tab, as well as Compressor 4.41 with support for closed captioning.
Final Cut Pro X 10.4.1 is a free update for existing users.
