I just LOVE Color Correcting in FCP X

Question

Don't ask me about the technical stuff but for some reason, I can now get great color (colour really) from some clips I shot back in 2006. The stuff I shoot these days is usually very consistent but these old clips muddy and have severe colour casts.
The new Color Board in FCP X seems to cope really well.
Being able to drag either of the four buttons to the colour that needs adjustment, slide it up or down for a rough adjustment, and then a tiny bit to the left or right to perfect the job is so user-friendly.
I disliked the old color wheels on FCP Studio, where it all seemed much less precise unless you were able to move a mouse in a perfect circle.
Anyone else have any thoughts on it?

Answer 1

My on-going off-and-on project has been editing and moving my old home movies to DVD so they can languish away digitally instead of as VHS tapes.  (This includes quite a few Super-8mm films which were converted to VHS in the mid 80s, so its still all VHS.) 
Sprinkled in with this are more current home movie projects such as "How we spent our year" Travelmentaries (commonly called vacation movies), and an annual DVD of our Boy Scout Troop outings for the year. 
First I have to say, this has all been hobby and goes along in fits and starts.  FCP 3 got old and clunky when it had to be pushed thru Rosetta like a meat grinder, and I messed with iMovie until FCE 4 came along.  If I had dedicated myself, probably would have finished all the VHS stuff long ago, but mostly worked on stuff when it occurred to me that peeps in the Super-8 stuff, for instance, might actually enjoy seeing it all again 40 years later. And the color correction stuff was tedious and wearing, making anticipation of the next project less inviting.
In all this, doing a limited amount of color correction and sharpening worked pretty well.  But I have to say that having all the parts (color, saturation, exposure) right there working the same with the same 4 "grab and drag" method has actually made the whole job far less imposing.
The one thing I miss about the color wheel, however, is that whatever color over-tinted the clip, dragging the "button" directly away from it pretty much settled the problem.  For instance, if shot inside with the yellowish incandescent tinting, blue was the color needed, and it was opposite yellow.
It took a bit to get used to the color bar's method of removing yellow in maybe light tones area and adding a little blue, perhaps, in the mid-tones.  But I also quickly found that by playing with the exposure in either area, I can sharpen those old fuzzy VHS tapes -- something I never noticed was happening until I tried it.  The sharpen effect works pretty good as a start (used unsharp mask in FCE), but the color bar really sharpens things up, if not overdone.
Personally, I find I am anticipating spending lots of time on my "restoration" projects now, all because of the ease of use and power of FCPX.  I finally finished one I started (converting the VHS tapes to DV) in 2009, although in all fairness, it was an extra four hours left over after having processed at least as much at the time.  (To make things less intimidating, I have also moved the VHS player and now convert the tapes directly to disk using an otherwise now unused Canon DV camera as an AV to DV convertor.
But I am certainly one of those apparently targetted by Apple with the new FCPX at the expense of losing their loyal professional base.  And the Color Bar's ease of use is a major part of that.