1080p support in Final Cut 5!

At NAB apple just announced Final Cut Studio 5. I'm excited because the specs say that it will support 1080p! (Final Cut 4 HD supported 720p, but not 1080p).

Does this mean that with a powerful enough Apple, you can do a 1080 "online" quality session - suitable for blowing up to 35mm?

My last film was

S16mm-->1080 telecine-->offline DV at home-->expensive audio post-->online 1080p with expensive post house-->35mm blowup

I would like it to be:
Cinealta 1080p-->online 1080p at home-->expensive audio post-->project 1080p HD

I love my visual post house.. but they are expensive! I would much prefer to do that at home.
But, I would still like to have a decent audio post production house - they have all the mixing boards, ADR studios, huge sound effects libraries, etc.

Anybody else plan to cut 1080p on the new Final Cut Pro 5 release?
 
At NAB apple just announced Final Cut Studio 5. I'm excited because the specs say that it will support 1080p! (Final Cut 4 HD supported 720p, but not 1080p).

Intersting that this happens just as Panasonic launch the P2.

S16mm-->1080 telecine-->offline DV at home-->expensive audio post-->online 1080p with expensive post house-->35mm blowup

I would like it to be:
Cinealta 1080p-->online 1080p at home-->expensive audio post-->project 1080p HD

I'm still not convinced that FCPHD is a suitable online tool.

My next production route will be Cinealta (or Panasonic DVCproHD)-->offline FCPHD-->expensive audio-->relatively expensive Avid Nitris online.

Bearing in mind that a online can be done in about three days adn the main bulk of the costs are the decks that you have to hire even if you online at home, I just don't think that it's worth saving $1000 at the online stage when so much time and effort has gone into production. Of course if I met someone who could make FCPHD look like AVID Nitris, I'd be open to saving a few bucks.
 
Are you by any chance refering to the new Panasonic also, Clive?

I'm going to look at the P2 for a training project in Africa, but no I'd use the same camera I used on my last picture the Panasonic varible frame rate DVCProHD. It's a well established technology and they've worked all the bugs out of it. I know it's only 720 but the picture quality is stunning.
 
The Varicam really is an amazing piece of equipment that's for sure! 2/3" chips really makes a big difference in picture quality.

I'm really looking forward to the new Panasonic. Supposedly it will have variable frame rates in its 720p mode just like the Varicam!
 
clive said:
I'm still not convinced that FCPHD is a suitable online tool.
...
Of course if I met someone who could make FCPHD look like AVID Nitris, I'd be open to saving a few bucks.

If a film is mostly straight cuts, why would a Nitris cut look any better than FCPHD? As long as it writes the final cut (no pun intended) to the HD tape correctly..
 
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I agree. You can edit in DVCproHD with FCPHD which is what Nitris edits in right? You can even get a third party intermediate codec such as cineform (or an uncompressed codec if your computer can handle it) if you are worried that the DVCproHD codec won't hold up to editing well enough. You can even edit 1080p in 10bit color space if I'm not mistaken. We're really reaching a point where there's just no need to rent an expensive avid system.
 
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