Final Cut Pro X, Apple"s high-end film editing software, has been off to a shaky start. A redesign of something as complex as Final Cut Pro was never going to be easy, but a large group of movie pros simply don"t think the new version fits the bill. Although Apple promises that most people"s criticisms will be fixed in future updates, critics argued that discontinuing the previous (and far more capable) version didn"t help.
Today, Macrumors has confirmed that Apple has begun restocking the older Final Cut Studio. The suite includes a whole host of tools alongside Final Cut Pro 7, such as Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, DVD Studio Pro 4, Color 1.5 and Compressor 3.5. The package is only available by phoning 800-MY-APPLE, and will set you back $999 (or $899 with education discount). Final Cut Studio won"t be available in the Mac App Store, and Final Cut Pro X will continue to only be available in the Mac App Store.
Being able to buy Final Cut Pro 7 again will likely appease users left in the dark when Final Cut Pro X was released. While a shuffle around of buttons and a few changed features was always going to take some getting used to, Final Cut Pro X doesn"t even let users import older projects. Work carried out in older versions has to be finished there, although Apple has promised a fix for this is coming in the future. Other crucial features not found in the rewrite are multicam support and SDI-out. FCPX was released in June, and so far hasn"t been updated.