@Nayche I've made the switch from FCP7 to FCPX, and find it to be very productive for editing my work, including multi-cam. It took a couple of weeks to be really comfortable, but due to superior media management, metadata handling and robust crash recovery, I'm glad I made the switch.

Occasionally, FCPX cannot correctly import my AVCHD footage from my GH2 (although it never has a problem with the AVCHD from my AF100), so I need to repeat the import, or better yet, rewrap the MTS files with Clipwrap, and then it's good as gold.

@Nayche The first time I opened FCPX, I hated it. Then, after a few months, I spent a couple of weeks learning it, mostly with tutorials I found on http://fcp.co/ website. Then, when I open 7 again, I feel what many people probably felt going back to linear editing after learning NLE... So I don't open 7 anymore.

About your next project, you should probably read this: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_x_road_young.html

According to many people, 5DtoRGB has the best transcoding algorithms, but, most of the time, I transcode from FCPX, just for the sake of my workflow, and to keep the shots date metadata. There is something you should know to transcode AVCHD in FCPX, especially if you're planing to grade on Resolve (I don't like FCPX grading tools at all). FCPX automatically rewrap the .mts files and put it into the "Original Media" folder. The problem is that, when you export an XML, it will point to the those files (H.264) instead of the prores transcoded files. To fix this, you can whether modify the XML (I haven't try on 10.0.4 XML though), or replace the H.264 files by the prores, in the Original Files folder (It's better to quit FCP first).

@Morphov and @ahbleza Many thanks for the information, that's very helpful. I really want to give FCP X a shot now, but it's not a necessity. I'm also a bit gun shy with rumors of a paid upgrade potentially right around the corner.

@Andrew Reid (I know you are here somewhere...)

Can you post the original files for this image? Also are you sure that you can't 'pull up' the blacks from within FCPX?

I have decided to take the plunge with FCPX... so this is very important... I also have hours of 'theatre footage' that I don't want to transcode with 5DTORGB... (I have been happy so far with Media Converters rewrap function.)

@stonebat @Nayche I am working since a few months with my GH2 footage cake 2.3 on fcpx on a macbook pro 13" 2011 i5 10.7.3, it works absolutely fine, I upgraded to 16GB RAM, because sometimes it "eats" away your RAM (for example when transcoding), and keeps it as "inactive RAM", that sucks (known issue, you have to restart), hopefully will be resolved in mountain lion, sometimes crashes, but no problem, I always transcode in fcpx, its just easier, the transcode-quality is not too bad (there is a whole comparison-topic in PV about it, don't remember where) only for very quick/small project I use the raw avchd... remember: if you customize your keyboard, put it on default before shutting down, if not it won't reboot.

Edit: I don't see the point to upgrade the MBP, for video editing in fcpx and premiere workflow is fine on the "old" MBPs, if you need faster transfer get a thunderbolt hard drive, if you need a higher resolution get a broadcast screen. Of cause it depends always what you need it for. For my documentary/creative stuff its enough. I have even put a 1TB Samsung HD into the DVD slot to be more mobile.

Edit2: Transcoding: Its better to transcode AVCHD immediately, the workflow will be much smoother and you will not have any further quality loss. If you don't transcode immediately and work with raw, it will be rendered anyway later if you apply any other effects and the quality loss might increase: http://www.kenstone.net/discussions/read.php?3,38384,38384#msg-38384

Edit3: Forgot to say: My girlfriend works on a MBP 2010 13" i5 8GB RAM with FCPX - smooth like butter

@gameb Thanks for the heads up. Have you tried FreeMemory free app from App Store to monitor and free up memory? Yes that’s exactly how I installed 2nd HDD. Frankly I heard many bad things about FCPX, but the consensus seems quick editing. 5DtoRGB batch app is great for “offline” transcoding. Still evaluating FCPX.

@alcomposer Thanks, but too late for me.

I've been playing with FCPX for a few days. Yes it has many cool features I like. But Adobe copied a lot of the cool features from Apple. Shame on you, Adobe. Shame on you. Yes I'm getting CS6 Production Premiere. PP CS6 supports Adjustment Layer for color grading, displays waveforms and vectorscope at the same time, and has 3-way color wheels.

FCPX plus Davinci Resolve seems like a VERY good combo. The only thing keeping me from going this route is audio. I'm still very confused as to what exactly FCPX offers for sending the audio to another program. The new Logic looks like it makes surround mixing very intuitive while still retaining its other pro functions, but I'm having trouble finding out if FCPX can send audio over or not. Can anyone speak to this one way or another?

Also FCPX + Motion 5 seem like interesting combo as people are finding more cool tricks. It's just that I was wrong about FCPX. It does need other apps. Since I'm already familiar with Adobe CS apps integration, I don't wanna go through the same type of hassle again.

FCPX -> ProTools (They are working on Apple Logic) http://www.x2pro.net/

FCPX -> Logic Pro (Beta out NOW) http://www.aatranslator.com.au/

Haven't had time to get AATranslator up and running - but its there for anyone to test...

PS: Coming from Shake- I found it very hard to go to AE. Hated Motion ever since it came out- yet I am liking Motion 5 so much!... Crazy. Especially with FXFactory, (I want to get into FXPlug2 as well- looks like good stuff).

Some nice updates. I haven't been using FCPX much since the launch but I did buy it and I do intend to keep checking back on it as it's updated to see if it's something I'd like to start using more often.

The features they've been adding seem to suggest this product was developed more as a Final Cut Express type tool that they're now busy bolting the missing Pro features onto, but it's nice to see that they are actually doing it.

Here’s a more in-depth review of what’s new in 10.0.6: http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/mspencer/story/Final_Cut_Pro_10.0.6_Quick_Look/