Since no-one has mentioned it, I thought I would join in on this topic. I know I am new here, so sorry if this is a bad idea to join in.
Photoshop:
A lot of people already use photoshop and a lot of people have no idea that you can actually edit video in photoshop.
It is known as a industry standard photography edits and much more. If you already have a copy of photoshop, you can open up a video, go to the the top of your screen, look under view, click the timeline and now you can see your video timeline on the bottom lower third of your open window. and edit from there.
The one thing I love about video edits in photoshop, I am already paying for a monthly subscription to it and I can use all my actions and plugins already purchased, you can still use layers and blending modes etc.
However it is still very basic edits, in terms of the video world,.
I used photoshop to edit all my original videos up to the beginning o this year. This is a fun hobby and another fun thing for my wife and I to do, so I don't look at is cost of doing business, I look at it as another cost for a hobby and since I already have photoshop, I have been using it to keep the hobby cost down.
However, I wanted a more video oriented software, since I already pay a monthly subscription, actually two, because you only get (2) two licenses with one subscription and I have a desktop, laptop and my wife has a desktop. we have to pay for (2) two subscriptions.
I did not want to pay for another subscription to adobe just to do video, and since we are mac users, I went with Final cut pro x at the start of this year. I also have Motion 5 and I am sure I will get the rendering program as well for even more rendering options down the road, but for now and hobby wise, the program FCPX does the renders I need for what we are doing.
Pros, on Photoshop:
1.) You can save the file in its original condition with out any type of rendering. If you are used to doing photography and save files in layers, so later on, even years later and you are better at edits, you can reopen the file and do more to it.
2.) If you are already using photoshop, you can get into the video edits as a newby to video and not feel too overwhelmed by doing something new, because all the basic edits are still the very same and the only thing new to learn is the timeline and adding keystrokes, fades, audio etc to the timeline.
cons Photoshop:
1.) It is not quite as robust for video like it is photography edits.
2.) It also takes a long time to render a video after you are done with the edits, and when i say a long time, you can actually go to dinner and then come back. on a 5-10 minute video if you have a bunch of transitions and what not it may actually take an hour to render.
3.) Not very powerful for audio edits, as you can tell from watching my videos, and yes I know i have a wind mic noise issue that I have been working on since I started moto vloggs, but I think I may have that fixed for this year as well, I just need a few days off to do some more vloggs to test it out.
** Worth Noting... Again, huge plus on photoshop, is the ability to save the file in its original form so you can save it to zip drive, or external drive, cloud drive, etc and work on it from a remote location if need be after it has already been started on one computer another computer can open it up and keep on doing edits. To me this huge on edit times, since you can save a layout of how you want your final video to look and keep them uniform if you are A.D.D like myself.
Since purchasing Final Cut Pro X and Motion at the beginning of this year, I can tell you it is much more powerful video editing software and if you go to apple you can see some videos on it and it is said to be used in actual movie edits etc.
Pros:
1.) You can load one paid version to 5 computers. (Adobe, used to allow 3 versions, but they changed that when they went to monthly subscriptions.)
** This is a huge perk for someone who does not want to get into trouble with the powers that be.
2.) I will say price is a Pro as a well, It cost $300 for Final Cut Pro, (I know money does not grow on tress, it is high, but..) so if you are going to load it on three computers, that is only $100 for each one if you break down the cost in your head, that is reasonable, a lot or people spent that much on lotto tickets this past weekend, so no biggie there. (Again, since Adobe only allows 2 versions for each paid subscription, that is just not acceptable and not worth the gamble of weather primer etc will work for me and us right now.) because that is two more subscriptions I would have to pay monthly for since my wife is learning too.
3.) Much more powerful tools to do every kind of edits I can think of.
4.) Very popular among video editing fans and since it is, there is plenty of plug ins etc for it.
5.) You can separate audio from a clip,
6.) You can do slow motion video edits as well ad a huge number of other video edit things. relatively easy and fast. (I am still learning and it is very similar layout to most video editing software.) but there are plenty of free and paid tutorials out there.
Cons,
1.) You cannot save or if you can someone can correct me, a original version that you can drag and drop to a zip drive and open on another computer.
***( Small caveat, I know someone will bring up the fact you can use an external hard drive and keep all the files from every video etc, In the Same Library, and it will be saved to that drive.) (yes but I am talking about the one video you are currently working on, you can't drag and drop that library to save it to a zip drive with out rendering it.) (When you do that, you will end up with a single layer flat copy. So all your previous layers etc will be flat. I will also say, I have saved a library with all the clips etc on a external thunderbolt SSD drive and it will not open correctly on another machine.)
***(so to me this is a con for the guy who has A.D.D like myself and wants uniformity amongst the videos no matter which computer you edit on. (Not with out having to rebuild the same Format. Yes I know you can render it and bring it in that way, but if I do it in layers and want you reuse that original layout, in layers, I have not been able to do that yet.) (Maybe that is where the render program comes in I mentioned above.?)
2.) I am going to call this a con instead of a Pro, and you will see why in a moment below,
**FCPX is Rendering while you are working on a project. Every keystroke you do while working on an edit in Final cut pro is saved in the file you currently working on, remember above when I said that you can save a file in photoshop, well, In final cut pro, it is saving everything you are doing from each and every key stroke, transition, adjustments, etc. in the Library, (final cut pro calls "files", "folders" "organizational structures", etc, "Librarys", "events" and "projects",).
The reason I say this is a con, is because a 5 minute video can end up being 30-40 GB in no time. Since Apple is stingy with GB's on hard drives,especially on its Laptops, I call this a con, because you can start working on a video on your laptop, and before you know it, you will be seeing a message that says your out of hard drive space.
To get around this, you can start your "Library" "Event" and "Project" on an external drive, (but this is another cost) Like the one mentioned, and it works fast just like you are on your own computers drive, but again, you will be burning up a huge amount of it while you work on one "Project"
*News and Noteworthy, Now for the Pro side of this same con, When you go to render the video, it will render in a couple of minutes as opposed to the photoshop time of going to go eat lunch or take a nap while it renders. You can also hit undo all the payback to the original clip, sine it saves everything in order of how you did it., However, I doubt anyone ever actually undo's all the way to the beginning of opening a clip.? unless you are just showing someone it can be done very easy.
When you are done with a video, you can go to the "File" click on Delete generated files, (or something like that) and it will take that 40-50 GB library and bring it back down to a reasonable size getting rid of all the keystrokes etc. But again, this can be seen as a pro or con, on my laptop, it is a con, my main iMac, we have two drives built in, and an external drive, since I have been using it for photography it is not a con, just a nuisance, only because we already have enough hard drive space it, so it is no big deal for it, but on a laptop wth only a half TB gig space it is killer, a huge con.
And again, the only really way to save it, is to render it and then you loose your layers, so if something needs tweaked on your bigger computer when you get back home from a location, you cannot do it unless you are doing the entire file on a external hard rive. and even then, it is a 50-50 shot that the other computer will open it up correctly. (or that has been my experience thus far only using the program for a few weeks.) (again I am still learning but this may need noted for someone who is using both and plan on using it seamlessly.)
Again, I am not a pro with video, and I am only sharing my experience with the FCPX and if something is wrong, it may just be that I have not found an easy way to do what I want to do with it yet, and I may be incorrect on the way it saves, but for a new person looking for video editing software I am giving my personal experience with FCPX and Photoshop. Photoshop, I know, I have been using it Since it was Photoshop, we are up to CC or something now.
This is just my 2 cents on it, and I will say even with some of the saving issues with FCPX, I absolutely love this program and it will do way more than I will ever be able to do with it. I have been using photoshop since its first version and heave taken college classes etc, and I still feel like I acc only scratching the surface of it, because it is so powerful, FCPX is very similar and i am sure it will do way more than I will ever be able to need it to do and or comprehend.
