Where to buy Final Cut Pro 7 | Jonny Elwyn

How to find the old version of Final Cut Studio 3

Apple updated FCPX to 10.0.7 today with a few bug fixes and it made me think how far it still has to go. I’ve been editing on FCP7 for long enough to know my way around most of its kinks so I’m happy to stick with it for now. If you’re looking to get your hands on a copy while you still can here are a few places you can….

Amazon.com – There are at least 8 still in stock at $1,679, and 6 second hand ‘opened box’ from $978. Which is still a pretty good deal seeing as you get FCP7, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro 4, Motion 4, Color 1.5 and Compressor 3. And they come on real DVDS with many gigabytes of sound effects, motion templates and menu templates.

Amazon.co.uk – There seems to be only 1 in stock (Hurry!) on the UK site for Final Cut Studio 3 (£999) but you can get Final Cut Studio 2 (FCP6… old school!) at £549 if you really want to.

Ebay.co.uk – A bit cheaper than on Amazon but shipping from the US (£66.47 shipping!) and a few bits and bobs of loose install DVDs and upgrade versions. All in all you might pick up a bargain but the buy it now is only £99 cheaper than Amazon, is it worth the hassle? There is a lot more stock on the US ebay.com though too.

A quick google also pulled up some places you could buy software only downloads of FCS3 but they looked a bit dodgy to me? Final Cut Studio 3 for only £50 seems a bit too good to be true…

Update: Oliver Peters has posted his thoughts on why FCP7 simply won’t ‘die’ – and why some new edit suites are still being kitted out with Final Cut Studio 3. He compares FCP7 to FCPX and Avid and comments:

Over the past few months I’ve done quite a few complex jobs on FCP X, when I’ve had the ability to control the decision. Yet, I cannot get through any complex workflow without touching parts of Final Cut Studio (“legacy”) to get the job done. FCP X seems to excel at small projects where speed trumps precision and interoperability. It’s also great for individual owner-operators who intend to do everything inside FCP X. But for complex projects with integrated workflows, FCP 7 is still decidedly better.