Lightworks official Release Soon

CreativeCow has the news from NAB on the official full release of the pro editing suite Lightworks for Window, Mac and Linux for free, with a $60 per year Pro version.A new Lightworks Web site will be released on May 28th.New features include:Very wide format support including AVCHD, H.264, AVC-Intra, DNxHDProRes, Red R3D, DPX, XDCAM HD 50, XDCAM EX, DVD, BluRay, 4K support (DNxHD available for a single additional payment)Support for all popular camcorder and DSLR videoNative real-time title generatorImproved interoperability – including AAF with Avid and Editshare FlowMajor improvements to Drag-and-Drop in the timelineTrimming enhancementsAutomatic Edit backupsBetter Import and Export windows: more options, easier to useShared ProjectsStereoscopic workflowThe Free and Paid versions will be released May 28th, 2012, and is only $30 a year for education users, and a you get a free community membership with a pro membership.Looking forward to trying out this powerful NLE.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

FCP.CO has the news on a new Blackmagic Cinema Camera. It is $2995 with 13 stops of dynamic range, a large 2.5K sensor and Canon EF mount lenses. And it comes with a full version of DaVinci Resolve and Ultrascope. It records to SSD in 12 Bit Log as well as CinemaDNG, ProRES and DNxHD, and has a large touch screen for entering Metadata. Check it out at Blackmagic Designs Web site.From what I see the biggest problem seems to be the lack of XLR audio inputs and only 1.4” instead. Certainly not as good. Makes this a good run and gun B-Roll camera, but you would want something with XLR for sync sound. Actually been reading more and it is the same sound as it would be with XLR.Seems people’s biggest complaint is going the Apple rout and having a non-removable battery that takes 3 hours to recharge. This certainly makes it more of a get a shot here and there camera, though it seems that it can actually take many different voltage power, so you can power it from many different batteries and it will be fine, so it is not like this is a huge problem, but you will have to have some sort of mount and extra batteries for any serious shooting.

Blackmagic Announces DaVinci Resolve 9

Creative Cow has the announcement of a completely overhauled user interface, that will be available in July and free of charge for all Resolve customers, or $994 full price as it is now.. New features include automatic 3D eye matching, mutli-layer timelines, xml support and more camera and file support. It also includes Log grading, audio playback with 16 tracks per clip, automatic audio sync, clip data burn ins and batch rendering for dailies.

Larry Jordan previews FCP X features to come

Larry Jordan has posted a preview of new features that will be added to FCP X and that Apple is saying that FCP X is to be a pro editing App. This includes native RED and Scarlet editing, and better audio editing, Dual Viewers (wow is apple admitting it was wrong??) and native MXF support, and rumors of another app to go with Motion and Compressor.Maybe Apple can make FCP X a real Pro Editing Program, but the bad word they have created with the initial release will forever taint it. Honestly they should be a doing a 64 bit Final Cut Pro 8, and put in as many new features from X as they can as additions, and that might convince people they are still going for the pro market, but FCP X in my opinion will be forever tainted.

Smoke 2013 for Mac Announced

Electronista has the announcement on Smoke 2013 for Mac. Sounds pretty cool, but I think the $3495 price tag will hurt them when they could have gone cheaper or done a crossgrade and really cleaned up, though the drop from $15,000 is really appreciated. I think a serious crossgrade offer like Adobe or AVID offered for Final cut Pro would hugely widen their installed user base.You can also check it out at Autodesks web site with a whole slew of videos.PVC also has a good article on the new smoke, as does Larry Jordan.It seems they are really stressing that Smoke does more than edit, with color correction, true 3D compositing, fast garbage masking, motion tracking, fast renders and node based compositing, which is really exciting for anyone who dabled with the ill fated shake in the past. And it is supposed to have been retooled to work on MacBook Pro’s not just high end MacPro’s. And it can take FC 7 and FCPX XML directly, though it needs to take AVID and Premiere as well.It will come out later this fall, but will have a fee beta version starting in June.I am really damn excited about this! I love node based editing since I learned Shake, but have stopped using it since Shake went away. Would love to have an editor with real Node based FX and full editing capabilities. I just wish there was sidegrade pricing!