Customer Reviews
BUG In Final Cut Express 4 
2008-05-30
I bought this and it worked well for the first week. Then a BUG in the software stops you from opening projects. Loads of people are upset by this and I have lost over 6 projects. Apple have fixed this BUG with Final Cut Pro but not with Final Cut Express 4. Why? Do we not matter?
The unreliability is shocking. I don't trust this software anymore. BEWARE!
excellent video editing product 
2008-05-26
If you want to video edit and are a novice this is the product for you. Just load up your video and then drag and drop it into this product. The more you use it the more proficient you become. Make videos like Spielberg and when you become that good, download your videos to Youtube for approval. When the public becomes impressed, now you are ready for the $1200 pro version of Final Cut.
disappointing 
2008-05-03
Final Cut Express is a difficult program with a steep learning curve and is in stark contrast to the beautifully human engineered Imovie program. When I saw the title "Visual Quick Start Guide" I expected just that. Instead I have labored to page 170 and just started to learn about the browser. I expected to see a quick initial guide showing how to do a first editing job followed by more detail on each step. Instead I had to labor through endless detail on basic features first, which are easily forgotten by the time basic editing (page 221), trimming edits (page 319) or creating transitions (page 389) are discussed. A concise description of basic editing is sorely missing. May be this book is useful as an encyclopedia for the program, but "learning Final Cut Express the Quick and Easy Way" is a completely misleading description.
Not ready for AVCHD yet 2008-04-29
This software crashes when importing AVCHD files from certain cameras, my Panasonic HDC-SD9, for one. I had to buy additional software to read and convert the files before importing them into FCE4.
Also, although it reportedly supports AVCHD files, it does not support their 5.1 surround audio, and as of right now, it doesn't support full 1920x1080 resolution.
Currently, FCE4 only supports a maximum resolution of 1440×1080. Video can be exported as 1920 from FCE4 using Quicktime Conversion, but not without interpolation.
Impressive. Time to learn. 
2008-04-27
(Note that when I compare "iMovie" with FCE-4 below, I am referring to timeline-editing versions of iMovie).
I've used timeline versions of iMovie for years - to quickly create movies at home, and video presentations for work. I sometimes wanted more power than iMovie had and I wanted to stay with timeline-based editing. So, I gave FCE-4 a try.
FCE-4 has an impressive professional feel with a UI that is an extension of iMovie's. FCE-4 has a longer learning curve compared to iMovie, though this is not a criticism - it has more features. But be ready for that. Having never used any prior version of FCE, the tutorial book "Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Express 4" by Diana Weynand, was key in ramping-up.
I am still learning it, but am impressed at FCE-4's technical capabilities. I've taken some side-tracks to learn more about "movie-making" generally (lighting, sound, story, etc). This is all part of it and is fun and educational overall.
Compared with iMovie, FCE-4 is a significant step in capabilities, and also in terms of time investment to learn it.
Good for price 2008-07-23
This program is a fantastic buy for Mac video editors who are unsatisfied with iMovie '08. It retains many key features of Final Cut Pro. There are a few exceptions, however. You can't batch capture footage with this program. Also, the buttons for Insert, Overwrite, and Replace are removed. These gripes shouldn't affect normal consumers , however. And at at more than $1,000 cheaper than Final Cut Studio, you can't go wrong. My two favorite features are the ability to capture AVCHD footage and the ability to import footage into iMovie '08, drag it into a rough movie, and import that movie into FCE for fine-tuning. It runs very well on an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 1 GB of RAM, just be warned that working with AVCHD footage requires a very strong computer.
As good as always 
2008-07-13
Had to upgrade from FCE 2.x due to changes in recent Quicktime versions, so while I'm out the money for FCE 4, it still seems like a fine product although I haven't yet had the opportunity to use the new 3.x/4.x features.
Final Cut 4 Express Rocks! 2008-06-26
Final Cut Express 4 is a great program for anyone who can't shell out $1200 For Final Cut. It has most of the great features that are included with the real deal. I would suggest it without question.
Great NLE! 2008-06-16
Before purchasing FCE 4, I had 3.5; the new version has some really great new features and plugins that make it well worth buying or upgrading. Given, it's not Final Cut Pro, but it's a good starting point for those of us getting into the advanced stuff of video and film without having to pay big money for the pro version.
Delivery was very fast (it arrived a day or two early!), which I was thankful for.
The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was that the open-frame-rate timeline doesn't support SD 24p, which I was hoping it would (it does support HD 24 frame rates, however). But I'm still giving FCE 4 five stars because it's a great product, I love working with it, and it gets the job done.
Buy Adobe instead 2008-06-02
While the editing abilities of Final Cut Express are okay, many of your projects will be destroyed due to FCE's badly designed file management system. It will not only put different parts of your project into different folders, making them very hard to find and rename into something useful, but should you rename or move even one file then Final Cut will throw a computer version of a temper tantrum and corrupt your project file, forcing you to start over again from scratch. And forget about archiving. I have worked on several projects using Final Cut and not once was I able to archive a project then open it again to do more work. Final Cut works on the premise that all video and editing will remain on your computer for all time, untouched, and that you will never need to archive anything in order to open up space for another project. It doesn't matter how good the editing features are when the file management part of the program is so badly made that projects self-destruct.
I'm demanding my money back and using it to buy Adobe video software, _they_ know the importance of archiving and user-friendly file management
