550D H.264 Format

[Andrew Rendell]

Hello again, sorry it’s taken me so long to come back.

This is a helpful page on how to set up Canon’s import utility:
https://www.finalcutuser.com/?p=1829

Then you import your footage using the “Log and Transfer” window and right click to choose import preferences and the utility is in there – select source format as EOS MOVIE and Target Format as ProRes 422 (or one of the others if you prefer).

[Andrew Rendell]

BTW, transcoding your footage into a different codec doesn’t necessarily change the frame size or rate, but things like Compressor and MPEG Streamclip have the ability to change frame size and rate (and a few other things) so whichever way you decide to do your transcoding you need to check how how you want those options when you set up.

Oh and backup, keep copies somewhere else for safety’s sake (particularly the camera originals). Computers and drives are very reliable these days, but on the rare occasion that a drive does go down it will be when you haven’t backed it up for a while!

[Scott Sheriff]

[Dennis Radeke] “A decent Mac will allow you to edit H.264 fine. Is the scrubbing buttery smooth? Absolutely not, but many people find it more than acceptable. It’s a personal opinion that you make based on time saved (by not transcoding) vs. edit experience, though many disagree with me.”

I wouldn’t disagree with that straight away. I’ve tried it before with my octocore and yes you can edit h.264, but there are a lot of ‘if’s. If your timeline isn’t very long, if all your going to do is cut, if the source frame size is not very large, if you don’t mind the sluggishness and seeing the beach ball a lot, if you don’t mind rendering for every little change you make. OK I’ll quit there.
But editing often involves more than just cutting, and when you start to apply any filters, put in dissolves etc. that is when it really starts to fall apart quickly. Render times skyrocket, adding plugins and filters will make your project a crash-o-matic which can (and will if it happens enough) then corrupt project and media files, and possibly corrupt your FCP installation. Look at all the stories of woe from people that have ignored (or were unaware) the advice to transcode h.264 stuff and had a unending stream of kernel panics.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Dennis Radeke]

[Scott Sheriff] “I wouldn’t disagree with that straight away. I’ve tried it before with my octocore and yes you can edit h.264, but there are a lot of ‘if’s”

Hi Scott – out of curiosity, was that experience with Premiere Pro or with Final Cut?