Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the latest and greatest video editing software from Adobe, and a paid “half-update” to last year's CS5. While the “.5” should indicate that this isn't the revolution that CS5 was over CS4, Adobe's added a few great new bells and whistles, and knocked the price of an upgrade down from $299 to $179 for those that don't want to wait for the eventual CS6.
The first improvement I noticed over CS5 is faster saving and loading times. Premiere users are probably familiar with the bright yellow “Media Pending” screen when you first open a big project. Well, the wait isn't quite as long now. Always a plus. Now, let’s get on with the other new elements!
Ease of Use
I've always considered Adobe Premiere Pro a relatively easy to use program. The integration with Photoshop, Encore and After Effects is excellent. You can import individual layers from a Photoshop file, import an After Effects composition and render it out in Premiere, and even import a Premiere Pro sequence into Encore (which is included even with the stand-alone version of Premiere) for easy DVD authoring.
Even if you're more familiar with Final Cut, and this is your first time using Premiere, you'll quickly feel right at home with a familiar layout and set of tools. As with previous versions of Premiere, you can even quickly change your keyboard shortcuts over to match Final Cut. (From what I understand, Adobe went to even more work to make this changeover simple and painless.)
In terms of working with DSLR footage or even RED, the latest version of Premiere is leaps and bounds ahead of Final Cut 7, which requires you first re-encode your footage into an FCP-friendly codec, which can be pretty time consuming. Premiere, on the other hand, lets you work with your footage in its native format, saving you time and keeping things at their original quality. The latest CS 5.5 update has also expanded native RED support for the RED Rocket, Mysterium X, and any RED codec all the way up to 4K resolution. To boot, if you're viewing it on a computer that's having trouble playing back in real-time, you can select half, or quarter resolutions to help you work much more efficiently.
A list of some of the RED Codecs supported in Premiere Pro CS5.5.
In the advent of DSLR and RED cameras, more filmmakers have been choosing to work with “dual system sound” i.e. recording your sound separately on a portable recorder rather than straight into the camera, and CS5.5 is the first editing software to acknowledge this right out of the box, now allowing you to “Merge Clips” which essentially creates a new sub-clip once you sync your audio to your video. This eliminates the possibility of audio sliding out of sync down the road as you refine your edit.
Merge Clips Is Especially Useful for DSLR shooters.
Depth of Options
Everything you need to get from your camera to DVD, Blu-Ray, YouTube and a variety of mobile formats is here. The stand-alone Premiere Pro CS5.5 package includes Adobe Encore CS5.1, Adobe OnLocation CS5.1 and Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5. As the numbers can tell you, there really isn't too much new to Encore or OnLocation this time around, but Adobe Media Encoder has received a pretty sleek new visual and stability overhaul. Just like before, you can stack anything you need to encode into a Queue so that you can walk away for lunch. In addition you can now setup watch folders that intuitively know that when Media Encoder sends a file to the “YouTube” folder on your desktop, it will use the YouTube settings that you've already specified encode another copy for that purpose.
The Redesigned Media Encoder.
One of the biggest changes in CS5.5, should you opt for the “Production Premium” package (which also includes Photoshop and After Effects, among other software), you'll also get Adobe Audition, which is their high-end sound editing software. Audition hasn't been included with the Production Premium package for the last few updates, but its return is very welcome. Premiere Pro CS5.5 integrates well with it, and you can now send clips to Audition straight out of the Premiere time line. (It’s not yet truly Dynamically Linked the way After Effects and Encore are, but that’s supposed to be available in a future version.) While new users won’t find it quite as intuitive as the now defunct Soundbooth, it’s still pretty easy to use and it’s much more powerful!
While not quite Dynamic Link, the "Edit in Audition" option provides much of that functionality.
Performance
CS5 was the first editing software to fully utilize 64-bit software and all of your RAM (which is even assignable between programs).
RAM allocation options work even better in CS5.5 than in CS5!
CS5.5 is still screaming fast of course, and highly-touted in this release is the improved usage of the Mercury Playback Engine, which takes advantage of compatible video cards (see Adobe's website for a full list) to playback effects-heavy footage, multiple layers, or even 4K in real time without rendering. While I didn't notice too much of an improvement between 5.0 and 5.5, it's still pretty impressive, and if you're running CS4 or earlier, you'll save yourself some time and headaches to pick up the latest version. (Plus many more plugins have now been converted to the x64 architecture of the CS5 line now than when CS5 was first launched.)
Value
So here's the $179 question... is Premiere Pro CS5.5 worth the upgrade? It may be more worth your while to pickup the “Production Premium” bundle for $399, which also gives you updated versions of After Effects, Flash, and Audition. All of which I consider pretty essential, and all of which have some nifty new features of their own. (After Effects and Flash are covered in this issue in a separate review here at MicroFilmmaker.)
Similarly to the old .5 releases before the CS series debuted, Adobe has knocked the upgrade prices down since there isn't as much new here this time around. I believe the last time this affected Premiere Pro was with Premiere Pro 1.5 which included support for 24p video cameras. Just as 24p was all the rage a few years back, for those working with RED or DSLR now, you might want to consider an upgrade. For those not already on CS5, you really don't know what you're missing and should jump on this asap.
And, now for something completely new, borrowing a page from long time colleague The Foundry (amongst others), Adobe now has a Subscription offering for their software packages. At $59 a month for Premiere Pro by itself or $129 a month for Production Premium, you can now try the full package out on a short film or project to see if you like it before you buy it. Now, this is NOT a rent to own option, as an eventual purchase is not discounted by previous rental, so this is not the right option for everyone. (This is the reason why I didn’t mention the fact that there are slightly lower rates per month if you pay in a year chunk, since you would come close to “leasing” the software in such a situation.) But for those who are on the fence and really want to see how this gear performs in the real world, this is a great way to do just that!
Final Comments Whether or not this half-release, and its new features, are intended to get the jump on Apple's Final Cut X, which is due out this August, remains to be seen, as details on FCPX are pretty vague at this point. But for now, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the editing software with the most horse-power to get the job done.
Ease
of Use
10.0
Depth
of Options
10.0
Performance
10.0
Value
vs. Cost
8.0
Overall Score
9.5
Mark Colegrove is the director of 2008's horror/comedy Isle of the Damned, which is self-distributed through his production company, Dire Wit Films. Based in Maryland, he currently produces video content for the National Aquarium and Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the latest and greatest video editing software from Adobe, and a paid “half-update” to last year's CS5. While the “.5” should indicate that this isn't the revolution that CS5 was over CS4, Adobe's added a few great new bells and whistles, and knocked the price of an upgrade down from $299 to $179 for those that don't want to wait for the eventual CS6.
