Apple Releases Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 + Final Cut Camera for iPhone
Credit: Apple
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When Apple unveiled its powerful new iPad Pro last month, it came with a surprise beyond just Apple’s leapfrog ahead to the M4 chip. Apple made sure it also had new software tools ready to show off what its flagship iPad Pro was capable of.
The demos of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad were impressive, taking their initial iPadOS versions to an entirely new level. While the iPad versions of these apps began as touchscreen-optimized ports, their encore generation is diverging from the Mac counterparts in some exciting ways.
Perhaps most significant is the shift of Final Cut Pro for iPad to the director’s chair. Using a feature called “Live Multicam,” Final Cut Pro on the iPad Pro can become a video recording and switching console for video inputs from up to four iPhone cameras.
Although Apple showed us all the highlights of what Final Cut Pro for the iPad would offer, neither the iPad app nor the iPhone counterpart were available right away. It said both were coming “later this spring,” and now they’re here — with one day to spare.
While Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.0 is designed to take advantage of everything the M4 iPad Pro is capable of, it’s not limited to only Apple’s newest tablets. In fact, it’s a direct upgrade from the original Final Cut Pro and remains compatible with any iPad with at least an M1 chip. That’s the 2021 iPad Pro or 2022 iPad Air and newer models.
However, not all features will be available on older iPad models, but most result from reasonable hardware limitations and not a lack of processing power. For example, Apple Pencil hover requires a 2022 or later iPad Pro or the latest iPad Air since other models don’t have this capability. Likewise, working with ProRes formats requires a 2022 or later iPad Pro with at least an M2 chip, while the HDR workflow features require the 2021 or later 12.9-inch iPad Pro with its mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR or the latest iPad Pro models with their OLED Ultra Retina XDR displays.
Beyond those specific features, Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 offers support for external projects on a USB-connected drive so you can work on media even on an iPad with limited local storage space. There are also 12 Color-grading presets, eight basic text titles, 20 soundtracks, six dynamic glitch backgrounds, and more.
Final Cut Camera
The Live Multicam feature is available on all supported iPad models and any iPhone running iOS 17.4 or later. On the iPhone side, this requires the Final Cut Camera app, which can be downloaded free from the App Store.
However, Final Cut Camera can do more than just feed your video to Final Cut for iPad. It’s a standalone professional video recording app in its own right, making it a great choice for those looking to do more than what the iPhone’s built-in camera app is capable of.
For instance, Final Cut Camera offers full manual control, letting you choose a range of resolutions, frame rates, and even advanced codecs like ProRes and Log color encoding (if you have an iPhone 15 Pro). You can also control ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and color temperature, as well as manual pull focus and precision zoom features.
If you have an iPhone 11 or later, you also get access to monitoring tools like focus peaking and zebra indicators for exposure tracking so you can ensure that your videos will come out perfect.
Even if you’re not using the Live Multicam feature, videos from Final Cut Camera can be wirelessly synced to Final Cut for iPad and transferred directly into a project. Both live and prerecorded footage is time-synced in Final Cut Pro on the iPad so the director can easily transition between different camera angles.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 is available as a free download from the App Store and should come as an automatic update for anyone already using the original version. It follows the same subscription model, priced at $4.99/month or $49 per year, with a free one-month trial for those who haven’t signed up yet.
