The new Final Cut Pro hooked me on iPad video editing

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been editing successful the newest mentation of Final Cut Pro for the iPad. For galore professionals, the archetypal merchandise of this app past twelvemonth missed the mark. Its tools person conscionable been excessively constricted to usage connected a regular basis. The caller mentation doesn’t needfully alteration that — but contempt my galore frustrations, I’m yet discovering the joyousness of utilizing it.

The caller mentation of the app, confusingly named “Final Cut Pro for iPad 2” (it is for each existent iPads, not the iPad 2), came retired this week. And possibly the biggest caller diagnostic successful this year’s merchandise isn’t wholly a Final Cut Pro feature: it’s a brand-new app that integrates with it.

The caller Final Cut Camera is simply a standalone app for your iPhone that offers precocious camera controls. If you’ve seen the Blackmagic app oregon the recently released Kino app, you’ll cognize what to expect: peaking, manual focusing, and audio metering. You conscionable won’t beryllium capable to adhd customized LUTs similar you tin successful the different two.

The Final Cut Camera app tin beryllium utilized successful unison with Final Cut Pro connected the iPad to grounds Live Multicam sessions with footage streaming successful from up to 4 iPhones oregon iPads. In Final Cut connected the iPad, you presume the relation of director. You tin show footage coming from iPhones, zoom in, and alteration the achromatic balance, absorption mode, and much connected the fly. I tin spot this caller diagnostic being peculiarly fashionable for video podcasts.

The previews you’re seeing are compressed, but they inactive look great. Once you halt the signaling session, the full-quality files get transferred implicit to the iPad moving Final Cut Pro and rendered. The full process is simply a batch faster than I anticipated. My 10-minute league with 3 iPhones was disposable for editing minutes later. A caller transportation indicator model connected the apical of the UI shows you the progress. 

There’s 1 upgrade I’d emotion to spot for this diagnostic successful the future: unrecorded editing. Currently, you’ll inactive request to extremity the signaling archetypal earlier syncing up each files and jumping into the edit. 

Multicam enactment is simply a large caller feature, but it contrasts with however small other Apple has done to amended the Final Cut Pro for iPad experience. The standout diagnostic successful this year’s update is outer hard thrust support. That’s important — this diagnostic was oddly absent past year. But its summation instantly reminded maine of however poorly Final Cut Pro for iPad (and iPadOS) handles record management. 

All of your media files person to unrecorded wrong the FCP Library files, and that aforesaid room record has to beryllium stored connected either the interior oregon outer drive. That means you can’t divided your media crossed aggregate drives oregon unreality storage. One broadside effect of this method is that it means you’re conscionable perpetually duplicating files from 1 spot to another. 

And determination are different issues that haven’t changed from past year. For example, you inactive can’t import implicit folders into Final Cut Pro, conscionable idiosyncratic files. And erstwhile they’re imported, you inactive can’t signifier the files into abstracted folders oregon bins similar “A-roll,” “B-roll,” “Music,” oregon “Graphics.”

Another caller diagnostic that’s unsocial to the iPad mentation of Final Cut Pro is Live Drawings. Using an Apple Pencil, you tin gully animations straight onto your clips. Apple’s latest Pencil Pro tricks are supported here, but speech from that, there’s not overmuch to bash with the Pencil Pro itself. I privation determination was a mode to programme the haptic compression to bash thing much connected the editing beforehand — possibly selecting aggregate clips portion hovering, oregon conscionable marque it a right-click. I consciousness similar that would beryllium utile and would velocity up moving with a pencil.

There are inactive a batch of superior video editing features that I’m waiting connected Apple to add: compound clips, folders, accommodation layers, station stabilization, coloring tools similar curves, task sharing betwixt machines, the quality to adhd caller LUTs, 360 video support, entity tracking, linear keyframes — the database goes connected and on. If you work my review from past year, you’ll find the nonstop aforesaid database there.

All of those missing things truly drawback you disconnected defender erstwhile you are successful the flow. Ultimately, I recovered myself making originative decisions based connected atrocious bundle limitations.

Meanwhile, the marketplace for mobile video editing apps is much competitory than ever. CapCut has been highly fashionable among TikTokers. “Why I’m switching to DaVinci” videos are each implicit my YouTube feed. And folks inactive stan the OG iPad app Lumafusion. In fact, 3 of the features I desperately request are already connected the DaVinci’s iPad app. 

But adjacent aft trying each of the different apps I conscionable listed and adjacent with each my vexation with the missing features, I support coming backmost to Final Cut connected the iPad. Because determination is 1 happening Apple is doing close here, and that’s the wide experience. 

Apple calls this a “touch-first” app, and I yet recognize what that means. Once you’re past the learning curve and erstwhile you get a bent of the controls and erstwhile you’re alert of its limitations, you commencement to really bask it and person fun. Apple isn’t trying to replicate the Final Cut desktop acquisition — it’s gathering toward a caller one. And you tin spot successful the mode you interact with the jog instrumentality and the mode that the sidebar comes successful truthful you tin edit with your near hand.

I recovered that utilizing the Final Cut Pro with my hands is by acold the astir immersive mode to edit. It’s each close determination astatine your fingertips, literally. There is thing astir this much tangible attack that I’m starting to find charming, adjacent if it’s not arsenic businesslike arsenic a rodent and keyboard.

If Apple tin cheque disconnected those casual wins, past its imaginativeness of a susceptible and touch-first Final Cut Pro could truly thrive.

Photography by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge