There's tons of threads here on this and most include the phrase a tool is just a tool.

What type of work are you doing? What do you deliver to? What do you think you is missing? Ever not been able to take or finish a job, because you were working in Vegas?

Folks who prefer Final Cut are usually working with film, not video delivery and folks who have to interact with others in their workflow, i.e one person cuts, one person does audio, one person does the color.

Folks who prefer Vegas usually are one man band, setups, you can edit, do audio and color all in the same application. The differences between Vegas and Final Cut Studio tend to be FCS has things that Vegas doesn't do. Vegas doesn't do motion graphics, while FCS has Motion. But does this mean you want Final Cut? Perhaps Vegas plus After Effects is the solution you want. I doubt you'll find editing in Final Cut better than Vegas most likely it will be slower for an experienced Vegas user. One part of the FCS suite that folks who work in Vegas do tend to like is DVD Studio Pro.

Most FCP editors do not have much experience with Vegas due to the Mac vs PC issue. If you a freelance editor, you should learn FCP as it's more widely used in the industry.

If they can't sit you down & SHOW you how much their NLE is "better", it's not worth switching imho. I've gotten people to Vegas that way.

On a side note, in the local 48 hour film project, the people who always use mac's always, ALWAYS almost have their field order out of whack. I've never had an issue with Vegas, period. I just render my HD timeline to SD & it works perfectly.

If your like me then you have become very comfortable editing in Vegas, and whipping out projects like your playing a video game that you've gotten real good at. Final cut feels clunky and awkward as any mac application does when your used to windows. Vegas is top notch when it comes to image correction tools and rendering. I've been using Vegas with film for the last 6 years and it has worked like a dream. I'm not a fan of post digital effects and find them to be pretty cheesy for the most part, so if Final Cut has that going for it, it can keep it. Vegas rocks with ease where it counts.

silly question really....

i drive a subaru, most of my friends drive toyota's and they all tell me how great they are and i should get one.

i find my subaru gets me from here to there as easily (and sometimes quicker) than their toyota's, i find the ride more pleasant in my car than theirs, etc., etc.,

however, if i had to carry a lot of passengers (ie. working collaboratively), then i'd probably opt for a toyota troop carrier - but since i usually travel alone, i see no reason to change.

however, if you're easily influenced by people who need reassurance that their investment was worthwhile, buy a mac and fcp ;-)

ok, to start with, i haven't used Final Cut for years, so i could be off in some of my comments.

also, my attitude to NLE's is an editor should pick one for day-to-day work and they should use the others for solving problems or tasks that cannot be resolved on their day-to-day system... expecting one nle to do-it-all makes me think noooooooooooob!

and much of my work requires fast turnaround... i may have a bunch of reels requiring adjustments within an hour or so. Vegas is practical for this kind of work which is why i use it.

and i work with audio which again makes Vegas useful.

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longform editing i find easier in FCP (better data management and timeline setup* (see bottom of this reply)

if i had to cut a 1 hour doc with lots of bits i MIGHT use Vegas, but i'd also consider FCP... but if it was a rush job, i'd have to go with Vegas just cuz i'm more fluent in it... i'd just be super careful keeping the data management worked out as i went.

more detailed CC software is available with FCP, but hard to say that's a significant advantage given anyone with Levels and a good Hue/Saturation could CC most near anything as long as their pipeline is good... and there's standalone solutions on the PC, plus After Effects or Nuke or whatever.

i found FCP easier to maintain 10-bit YUV from intake to render than in Vegas. but that was a while ago and i've not had to do it since. maybe i'm not that bright on this topic.

if i have to move from software to software (or worse, platform to platform), its definitely Vegas. Roundtripping with FinalCut can give unexpected returns and you kinda need to watch for that if it's a roundtrip you haven't done before (ie: bouncing to a thirdparty software on a PC, then moving back to FCP). moving from Vegas to AE and back has always been painless for me.

Audio is FAR easier in Vegas... actually there's no compare in regards to audio for most NLE's vs Vegas, so skip this, its a pointless topic.

the faster you like to work, the more likely u should use Vegas.... it's definitely geared towards smaller-scale works in my experience. very fast to get in, around and out. maybe Edius is good at this, dunno, haven't tried it yet.

if you're doing more methodical edits (where every cut has already been scripted and you've got lots and lots of clips) i'd lean towards FinalCut or Avid.

one thing i really like in Vegas is doing small 2D camera moves on various shots to help sell them (insert whatever jargon phrase u prefer). much much easier than in FinalCut (or Premiere), unless they've completely rebuilt that aspect of the program since i last used it.

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having used most NLE's i feel zero interest to move to anything else. i'm comfortable using Vegas, so why change? if there's something it can't do i'd move to the NLE that can, then move back once done.

and anyway, all NLE's suck in their own way... they all screw up some things royally.

you'll eventually need to use at least 1 other and probably more... plus an alternate compositing app or two. it's no big deal and the basics in each aren't that hard to learn (well the conceptual aspect of Avid maybe, they do things sooooo different from how i approach an edit it felt like a straitjacket, but that's just my lack of familiarity with it).

anyway, hope these random end-of-day thoughts help.


* just re-read after posting and saw i didn't explain this section clearly, sorry.

i meant, when working on a one hour doc, having multiple timelines in one project (FCP) allows me to have all 10-15 minute sections of the doc in the same project... doing a one-hour in Vegas on ONE timeline is scary for keeping organized in my experience; the solution is generally to use a different project (instance of Vegas) for each 10-15 minute section, but then updating files that are in all kinda sucks... it sucks a lot actually. just my opinion of course :)

Over the years I've tended to stay as far away from these potentially flame ridden threads as possible. That said, I am a long time Vegas user that was forced to add FCP to my workflow due to one very large client that insisted on it.

In my opinion, there is absolutely NOTHING in FCP that is faster or more intuitive than Vegas. Believe me, I've tried to find something, anything that I could walk away with and say, "Wow." I'm nine months in, use both programs a lot but use Vegas any time I can.

I will say though I have become partial to the Mac OS after 25 years in the PC world. Can't put a finger on it and I've not become an evangelist but I liked it from the first time I used it. Fortunately I have parallels installed so i can run Vegas on my Mac. Life is good.

Mike

Buster, that was the best comparison I've read in here. It addressed the strengths and weaknesses, and didn't digress into the usual fanboy nonsense.

There are good responses in this thread, but I will just add a couple of thoughts.

FCP and Vegas do the same thing: edit video. They just do it differently. Some people like one way or the other.

Vegas lacks hardware support, which FCP has (more selections and control over capture cards such as AJA Kona).

Vegas does not utilize timecode as well as it should, so if you are importing or exporting projects for use in other systems of NLEs, this could present problems.

Otherwise, the workflow in Vegas is more natural. Vegas allowed mixed formats on the timeline long before FCP did, and does it better. Vegas will always attempt to preview a scene or effect, FCP will show you the NEEDS RENDERING graphic more than you will care to see. FCP is Mac, so if you aren't a Mac user, you have to shift (no pun intended) your keystrokes and mindset about them.

I prefer Vegas, but have to use FCP per client's needs to exchange EDLs and projects with other facilities and equipment (such as DaVinci Color Correction and Pro Tools for audio)

I find it is good to know as many NLEs as possible. Each has a different way of working and improve my ability to the the best out of the others. For example, after working with FCP for a while, I found some new ways to do things in Vegas and vice versa.
Dave T2

I bought FCP because I needed to trade work with some other shops and also to see if I was missing out. I now have both Vegas and FCP on my desk. FCP has added some 'polish' to my current productions just because Motion is easy to get started with - has some great text efx and usable graphics templates.(I never had the time to learn After Effects) FCP also comes with some great music. Have also made good use of Compressor. I am still editing on Vegas and importing FCP element into my Vegas projects - but very pleased with my FCP purchase.

I also bought Final Cut because everybody told me I should be using that software to cut with. Major dissapointment (just my opinion) - without the awesome plugins that make Music Videos interesting, I saw nothing that Vegas couldn't do FASTER. Now Motion, Color, livetype (at the time) are killer apps (imho) and I have not seen anyhing better that let's you CREATE works instead of reading up on how to do it. Aftereffects (CS4 or better) with the awesome plugins (many or the FC plugins are available for Aftereffects) seems to do many Motion effect. If you really want to invest in FCP I recommend izzyvideo.com's Final Cut Tutorials. Then take on a project and RENT/borrow a FCP bay from a friend then complete. It took me 3x longer to do a simple 3 min promo (but I've used Vegas since V3 when I did this. Back to Vegas as main NLE and FCP when I need...ugh.have to.

Thanks everyone so far for their feedback.

Basically I work creating corporate videos and I wanted "slicker" motion graphics for lower thirds and intros. But I am thoroughly convinced I should stay with Vegas after reading everyone's feedback.

But is there a motion graphics editor that is simple to learn that I can use for Vegas? Thanks.

Since you're primarily interested in lower thirds, take a look at Digital Juice's MDT and ET.

Digital Juice for sure, but do take a look at After Effects. I've found that Vegas/AE is an excellent combination. I actually taught myself AE using two indispensable tools: "Classroom in a Book" (breaks the interface and "how to's" of AE into 15 1 hour lessons), and Andrew Kraemer's website: videocopilot.net