Those in such a situation inevitably consider Final Cut Studio (FCS), the pro-level de facto standard. This $1499 bundle of Apple applications (upgrade $449) includes the Final Cut Pro 7 video editor; Motion 4 animation package; Soundtrack Pro 3 for editing in-movie audio; Color 1.5 colour grader; Compressor 3.5 video outputter; and DVD Studio Pro 4, a high-end DVD production tool.

It is, in short, everything you're likely to need when dealing with video - which is why it's considered a standard application for video professionals. But is Final Cut Studio too much of a step up for video enthusiasts who've outgrown, or simply run out of patience with, iMovie? I took it for a spin to find out.

The first thing you notice about FCS is its sheer size. Spread across a pile of DVDs, the default installation sits at 52GB and took several hours to complete. Most of this is bundled audio clips and other content, so careful consideration can pare this considerably.

Final Cut Pro (FCP), the centrepiece of the suite, is built around a four-pane view that incorporates the timeline layout and lots of controls. The feature-heavy interface does make sense once you climb the learning curve, but many of FCP's concepts will evade and quickly frustrate casual moviemakers who should stick with iMovie.

Patient experimentation confirms that FCP is a full-featured video editing suite that offers highly granular control over your video. Transitions, effects, and multiple video and audio tracks can be managed, blended, overlaid, adjusted, and fiddled with to your heart's content. New in FCP 7 are tools for changing playback speed; 'alpha transitions' so you can fade between scenes using detailed objects defined with alpha masks; global transitions; background exporting; and, for those of you working with a production crew, the Cinema Tools film management tool and the ability to share rough cuts of a video with multiple people via iChat Theater.

In short, FCP offers everything a post-production professional needs, and everything your average consumer, if they're honest with themself, probably doesn't. Those that insist on having more power than iMovie offers but don't need pro-level tools may find better value in Apple's $268 Final Cut Express.

But what of the rest of the FCS bundle? Do the other applications make FCS worth the cost?

Motion, for example, is a capable animation tool for animating text and images in three dimensions. Import your content, define their movement along paths, in two or three dimensions, then add effects to your heart's content before outputting files suitable for Apple TV, Blu-ray movies, iPod, YouTube, and more.

New features include 3D shadows and reflections, depth of field with selective focusing, credit rolls, camera framing tools, links between objects and new text features. Put it together, and Motion is a top-rate animation tool that's readily accessible and will be hugely popular with people who love adding fly-in effects to their PowerPoint or Keynote presentations.

Soundtrack Pro is a multi-track audio editor putatively intended for recording, editing and synchronising the stereo or even surround-sound soundtracks for your movies. New features like matching of voice levels, time stretching, and better multi-track tools fill out an already robust feature set. There's much greater control over waveform audio than in GarageBand, but none of the fun - Soundtrack Pro is all work and no play.

Then there's DVD Studio Pro, which doesn't have many new features but continues to offer a full suite of DVD production tools that leaves iDVD for dead. If you make lots and lots of DVDs - especially if you're selling them - the inclusion of DVD Studio Pro goes a long way to justifying the cost of FCS even if you're not doing pro-level editing.

Color 1.5 and Compressor 3.5, which respectively manage colour grading and output of final video projects created with FCS; both are feature-packed and more so in the new version, but prosumers aren't likely to find $1000 worth of value in them.

Verdict

So, is Final Cut Studio worth the expense? If you're a video professional, the new features add polish and capabilities - as well as excellent integration between packages - and you've probably upgraded already.

But if your job doesn't depend on video production? Not necessarily. FCP's many features make it appealing for control freaks, but those that just want more control than iMovie offers should stick with FCE. FCE offers timeline-based editing without all the high-end collaboration and pro-level output features that you probably won't need when editing the video from your cousin's wedding or the latest family holiday. Ditto audio editing, which is all business in Soundtrack Pro - mere mortals may do fine spending $299 for Apple's midrange Logic Express 9.

The clincher for FCS, however, comes in the inclusion of Motion and DVD Studio Pro, which are not available separately. Motion enables great video effects, while DVD Studio Pro offers great flexibility for those who live or die by their DVD output. For such customers, FCS is a value-packed bundle whose extra expense will be more than justified by the professional-quality output it produces.

www.apple.com.au/finalcutstudio

Price: $1499