FCS 2 has a new feature called SmoothCam. It’s a filter in Final Cut that will smooth out those shaky shots. Not only does it work on clips in your timeline like any other filter, you can also drop the filter on clips in your project/browser window and it will analyze the clip in the background. That’s right…you can keep working on the timeline as it processes behind the scenes. That is killer.

So last week Create Digital Motion posted the first SmoothCam test/tutorial I’ve seen online. They realized very quickly that HDV footage requires horrendous processing times with that filter unless you first export the clip into some other codec, they are suggesting ProRes 422. Some video examples shared as well.

Scott Simmons followed suit soon thereafter with his extensive SmoothCam test, complete with examples. And then updated the test with a head to head comparison vs competing NLE’s. Thanks for the hard work, Scott!