Final Cut Studio 2 is a fantastic editing software that has six powerful applications specially designed for editors. It is loaded with high-end features and is aimed at experienced to professional users. This software that was used to edit movies like Letters from Iwo Jima, Cold Mountain, and No Country for Old Men, can definitely be called one of a kind.  Sorry Windows users, Final Cut Studio 2 is only available for the Mac.

Final Cut Studio 2 needs a 1.25GHz Mac computer running OS 10.4.9 with 1GB of RAM and a free hard drive space of 60GB for all the programs, tutorials, and templates. It also takes a pretty long time for this nine disc suite to install. The look of Final Cut Studio is very similar to the previous versions. The multi-pane layouts are easy to understand with the customized and resizable drag-and-drop feature modules. Most of the tools are intuitive, like the scopes within Color. But this new version is more easily handled by long-time users rather than novices. For people inexperienced with the earlier versions I would recommend first reading the manual, thoroughly, before tackling it. The screen with all the features can be a bit over whelming for inexperienced people. And like any other complex applications, it would be a good idea to learn all the shortcut keys.

Final Cut Studio 2 has six applications, with the Final Cut Pro 6 at its core. Final Cut Pro 6 has multiple panels, including a file browser, timeline, canvas displaying the timeline, clip viewer, and tool palettes. The best part about Final Cut Pro is the updates, for example the Open Format Timeline that allows you to drag and drop different clips in varied formats into a project without any transcoding. The first clip that you drag on the timeline has certain properties; Final Cut Pro will match settings of this clip and subsequently selects clips to be added to the timeline. The new ProRes 422 post-production format offers uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes. Although it supports many industry-standard formats, like DVCPRO HD, XDCAM HD, DV, HDV, you won’t find any support for Blu-ray. Support for AVCHD has been added with the version 2.0.1 updates.  It supports many of the next generation cameras but not the Sony V1U or JVC 60fps HDV cameras. Although Final Cut Studio is very good, it could still manage to be more attentive toward the fine details. For example it doesn’t give any estimate of the final file size when you are exporting a project, whereas Sony Vegas Pro offers this feature. Apple also fails to offer a comparable preview of how the movies would look on handheld gadgets. Even though Final Cut Pro is much better compared to version 5, it has a tendency to crash with general errors while performing various functions. It is a good idea to solely dedicate the machine to the task of editing and avoid any kind of multitasking.

Another interesting feature of Final Cut Studio is Color. This feature lets you view and adjust color with 3D scopes and flatter-looking levers compared to Final Cut Pro which did not let you do this. This application also allows you to match colors from different sources or create special effects. It can actually let movie makers achieve better looking movies. But Color is limited to 10 bit resolution support. As compared to Adobe Premier Pro that handles high end 4K RGB, Color is only capable of handling 2K RGB. Another short coming of Color is that you must break down projects sent to it in 22 minute reels, ideally with 200 or fewer edit points.

Soundtrack Pro 2 enables the conversion of stereo to 5.1 surround sound or a combination of the two. It has an enhanced spectrum view like Adobe Soundbooth CS3. This spectrum allows for quick corrections. There is a set up of visual fade selectors that allow quick tweaking transitions. The non-destructive waveform editing lets you make changes without losing earlier work.  The new Conform tool lets you sync video and audio changes, too. You can also edit more than 1,000 new royalty-free music samples and sound effects from “ambience” to “sci-fi.”

Motion 3 animation application offers a clean interface and cool 3D compositing capabilities. It has a few new features that let you be more creative without requiring the use of a curve editor, filling in coordinates, and using keyframes. It lets you view and drag around the 3D space from many angles, including the vantage camera points, and then zoom in, set drop zones, and duplicate behavior. It has a SmoothCam technology that comes in handy to transform otherwise unusable and shaky footage into a stabilized clip. The new vector painting tool is brilliant and it delivers brushstrokes that are as sharp as they can be. It has other good options like tracking and match moving, a pattern replicator, and optical flow retiming. It also has a 3D animated text effect and many new stock design elements. You can edit templates from Motion 3 without leaving Final Cut Pro 6.

Compressor 3 encodes 2.8 times faster than in Compressor 2. It also supports formats like MPEG-2 and H.264.It allows batch processing and flexible job chaining. It lets you apply and access filters without rendering. But Adobe Creative Suite3 scores above Final Cut Studio in preparing content for mobile devices more easily.

Final Cut Studio 2 has four volumes of printed manuals, along with free videos. This help can come in handy for professionals. But even with this pool of information it is fairly difficult for a new user to understand the software from scratch. Simple tasks like adding titles to clips can become unending ordeals. On the positive side AppleCare representatives are available everyday for 12 hours, live, either via telephone or e-mail, if you were to find yourself stuck with something. This service comes with a handsome fee of $799. But for that kind of money I would expect them to be available 24/7 to take care of the inevitable predawn deadline.

Final Cut Studio 2 is an all-in-one toolkit for professionals and it has the capability of taking the movie making experience to an entirely new level. Although very expensive for the consumer, it is a deal for professionals compared to Avid.  In the consumer space it still faces competition from Adobe CS3 and Sony Vegas Pro, which are nearly as good as Final Cut Studio, but easier to get a hold off for novices. Final Cut Studio 2 is priced at $1,299 or $499 to upgrade. Any prior versions of Final Cut Pro may upgrade to the full Studio 2 for $699.

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