Final Cut Express 4’s AVCHD support alone is well worth the $199 for the software.

 

We’ve always been big fans of Final Cut Express. It offers a ton of pro-level editing features for just a fraction of the price of bigger-budget packages like Final Cut Studio ($1,299, www.apple.com), Avid Xpress Pro ($1,695, www.avid.com) and Adobe Premiere Pro ($799, www.adobe.com). And at $199, version 4 of Express is a top-notch value—the previous version was $299.

 

Sure, $199 isn’t chump change, but consider that Express gives you most of the same editing tools, animation features, and real-time effects found in Final Cut Pro with the same flexible interface. In that light, $199 is a bargain, and the budget-friendly price makes it easier for iMovie power-users to step up to Express.

 

Of course, Apple gave Express some new features, too. Most important is that, if you have an Intel Mac, the app now captures and edits footage from HD camcorders that record video in a format called AVCHD. (Don’t confuse AVCHD with another HD format called HDV, which Express has worked with for a couple of years.) AVCHD uses very efficient compression, based on the H.264 codec, to squeeze a lot of good-looking HD video onto tapeless media like DVDs, hard drives, and memory cards.

 

Capturing AVCHD video with Express is actually a pleasure, much better than futzing with tape-based cameras. Just plug your camcorder into your Mac and bring up Express’s new Log And Transfer window. You’ll see a list of all the individual scenes you’ve shot. From there, you can preview and then capture any or all of the scenes to your Mac’s hard drive—and as a bonus, you can start editing while capturing later clips.

 

Unfortunately, Express doesn’t just capture the raw AVCHD video from your camera—it converts the video using an intermediate codec that’s easier for your Mac to work with but leads to some hiccups. For one thing, HD video in Express’s intermediate codec requires between 25GB and 49GB of hard drive space per hour of video (depending on whether your camcorder records in 720p or 1080i). That’ll fill a hard drive up quickly. Likewise, transferring the footage from your tapeless camera to the Mac is slower than capturing from tape. These hitches aside, we’re happy to never have to fast-forward or rewind through a tape again to get the right scene.

 

Express can also import your iMovie ’08 projects, but we’re not especially wowed with the process. In iMovie, you export your project to a special format by choosing Share > Export Final Cut XML. Then, in Final Cut Express, you choose File > Import > FCP XML From iMovie. Here’s the catch: Express will import iMovie’s edited video clips and any cross-dissolve transitions you’ve applied, but it won’t bring in independent audio clips, text titles, video effects (from the Ken Burns Effect to color enhancements), and it will convert any other iMovie transitions to plain ol’ cross dissolves.

 

---

 

What’s the point of starting a project with iMovie in the first place if so much of your work is lost when it’s moved to Express? It only makes sense if you want to use iMovie’s simple interface to create a very rough cut of your movie before fine-tuning it with Express. Most people who bother to buy and learn Express will be comfortable enough to work with it from start to finish.

 

Express’s other new features may come in handy—or not. You can now mix video in different formats all on the same timeline, without having to render any of the clips before playing them (for example, mixing standard-definition DV video, high-definition HDV video from a tape-based camera, and AVCHD video from a flash-based camera in the same project). It’s a surprisingly sophisticated feature for a $199 editor.

 

If you like to apply effects to your videos, you’ll welcome Express’s 50 new filters. Some, like Light Rays, could come in handy for a number of projects, depending on your editing style. Others, like Insect Eye, may never see the light of day. Still, Express can now work with third-party filters in the FxPlug format, so filter packages made for Final Cut Pro or Apple’s Motion will also work.

 

Except for the strong AVCHD video support, we would actually trade all of Express’s other additions (the format-blind timeline, the extra effects filters, and the iMovie compatibility) for one feature that Apple didn’t include this time around: a project archival system. Express lets you capture a ton of video to your hard drive and edit it into an impressive show, but there’s no easy way to keep only the actual media that your final edit used and clear your hard drive of all the space-hogging video that you don’t need. You could always export your entire edit to a new QuickTime file and then erase all the raw media from the project, but then you can’t go back and re-edit the project later.

 

HD video can fill up a roomy hard drive in a hurry, so it’s important to let editors get rid of the video they don’t need, while still letting them edit their project down the road. Final Cut Pro can do this with a couple of clicks, and so can other affordable editing software. It’s time for Express to join the club.

 

The bottom line. Other than the well-designed support for AVCHD cameras, Express 4’s other new features may strike you as a tad underwhelming. We tend to agree, but Express has already built up such a fantastic and unrivaled lineup of editing and effects features. With its new low price, Express is still the best editing value around.

 

COMPANY: Apple

CONTACT: www.Apple.com

PRICE: $199, $99 upgrade

REQUIREMENTS: 1.25GHz G4 or later or Intel processor; Mac OS 10.4.10 or later; AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme or Intel GMA integrated graphics processor; 1GB RAM; 500MB hard drive space for apps, 500MB for LiveType content.

 

Works with new AVCHD cameras. $100 cheaper than previous version. Includes major features found in Final Cut Pro. Universal binary.

Intel Mac required for AVCHD. No way to archive projects. No longer includes Soundtrack.