I usually do a little overview of each new FCP X release on the day it drops, as it’s interesting for most users to see what’s inside before they update. But this time, things are… different. Not only did Apple announce the release of 10.4.1 five days in advance, they also seem to have provided a press kit to bunch of people with lots of info about the new features in this release. With pictures. And a White Paper.
Apple had done something similar with the 10.4 release, but it was still pretty mysterious. At the FCP X Creative Summit, they let people take pictures of the unreleased FCP X 10.4 UI. And post them ONLINE! Madness! lol But it was still kind of mysterious. People had to infer features from the pictures of the interface. This time, everyone could find out in great detail what was in an FCP X update before it was available.
There was also a pretty interesting TechCrunch article about Apple’s efforts with creative pros that appeared on the same day as everything else. This was not your usual, quiet FCP X Roll out.
In some ways, I think this is a bigger deal than he update itself. And it seems to be a continuation of an ‘openness’ on the part of the Pro Apps division in general.
A couple months ago, Apple did a presentation on the then-new features in FCP X 10.4 at LACPUG in Los Angeles. Not unusual, they do traveling roadshows in bigger markets pretty often. What was unusual though, was that a couple days after the event the demos were posted online for all to view. That was unheard of until now.
This isn’t to say they’re not being just as secretive as before. Nobody had a clue about ProRes RAW, or any other new features before Apple chose to release the info. But they did release the info, early, and to a lot of people. The PR Blitz around ProRes RAW has been pretty astounding. And kudos to Apple for this.
Most of the latest features in FCP X signal that they definitely have NOT “abandoned the Pro market”. The headline features in that last couple X releases have been squarely aimed at ‘Pro’s’, and Apple is talking again. I think the best is yet to come.
So, what’s in the update? Lot’s of bug fixes. Captions, and ProRes Raw. I don’t do a whole lot with captions or Raw footage, but a little bird told me that the ProRes RAW is pretty amazing. This is third hand, unsubstantiated info, but allegedly – using Better Performance setting – you can play and work with un-rendered 4k RAW files on a 6 year old iMac from a TB 2 external spinning drive.
Crazy. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Final Cut Pro X Babbling 
So sounds like pretty much a no-brainer 422HQ replacement? Does it have an alpha channel?
I don’t think it’s a replacement for other ProRes flavors. I don’t see any way to ‘export’ in RAW.
It’s not and you of course can’t, no. That would be nonsensical.
” I don’t do a whole lot with […] Raw footage…”
And that’s the whole thing. Why haven’t you? Probably because it was a DOG to work with no matter who it came from, no? At least that’s been the only reason for me, even in situations when it could well have been the better, more suitable choice!
And that’s why I think PR raw is going to make a HUGE splash in the short or long of it. It’s “the every man’s raw”. You get superior, pristine quality with the performance of 422 (more or less… at least USABLE performance 😉 ) That’s huge imho. I’m just curious (and anxious) to see when and which camera makers start supporting it, since that clearly is THE deciding factor on how it does.
ProRes Raw is
1. Cameras write as fast as possible and as much without processing.
2. Like a negative with less storage.
Why would you export when raw has to be converted to pixels.
Do you really want to be doing that even after your edit.
Raw is for HDR. You will when 709 dies and you have monitors higher than 2000 nits.
Yes, it is. But you can of course export as REC 2020 HDR in any flavor of ProRes.
There IS no raw export. It’s an ACQUISITION codec only.
And yeah, whether you’re capturing in raw or not has zero to do with HDR. ANY camera that captures LOG, in whatever codec, is (potentially) capturing in/for HDR.
Then why does Atamos exist if current camera can do that.
They can’t that is why external recorders are necessary.
If regular ProRes can do that the Raw is not necessary.
It is giving you flexibility of Raw without the hassles
Obviously it is lossless compression because you cannot handle full raw any way.
People would be using DNG.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.