Hints of what is coming are showing up online: video posted from one of Blackmagic Design's distributors showed a working FCP X and Thunderbolt I/O device a week before the public release date. And Apple has confirmed that it is working with third-party vendors to help them update their products for FCP X, yet I do not expect to see much in the way of hardware until Lion is released.

While FCP X cannot open the DPX or OpenEXR file types used for commercial production and visual effects in many Hollywood feature workflows, FCP X does have the built-in libraries from Shake already in place under the Share -> Export Image Sequence function to output such files. I wonder how long it will take before I am able open those files, as well as other formats like Red's R3D, Sony's SR2, ARRIRAW, and the high-speed Phantom Cine files.

With Final Cut Pro X, Apple is once again out to completely re-invent the video industry. This is a truly groundbreaking release for a 1.0 software version, and I hope that the professional features that many video editors currently use will be made available soon.

For the time being, as someone that needs to work for a living, I am not giving up my hardware-based version of Final Cut Pro 7 just yet, especially since Apple makes it possible for users to have both FCP X and Final Cut Studio functional on the same computer.