canon 5d/7d import solutions

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

canon 5d/7d import solutions

Posted by Johannes Johannesen on March 7, 2011 at 8:21 pm

Hello, I am a newbie to using HD footage in FCP, and especially from canon 5d and 7d…

I believe my cameraman shot the footage in 25 frames per second, but is there any way of finding out via the original? he did also mention that he had shot some on the canon 7d to be used for slow motion, but again how do I find out, weather the footage is good for slowmotion??
And if it is what do I need to know regarding resaving them in a format to be edited in FCP?

So, anyway, I have used mpeg stream clip to convert them into apple xdcam 1080p25 vbr for now.
I noticed here, that after resaving them in xdcamformat the filesize shrinks a little (by about a 5th). Is this normal?

What is the best project setting I should use in FCP? Does the Videorate of the timeline need to be the same as the footage? i.e. if footage is in 25 fps, the time line needs to be as well? and what if i have footage of various fps?

Thanks, and sorry for all these basic questions….
J

Stephen Smith replied 15 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

Stephen Smith
March 7, 2011 at 8:40 pm

To find out what frame rate the footage is look at the clip in the Browser. There are multiple tabs and the one called :”Vid rate” will tell you the frame rate. I prefer to use Cannons free plug-in to log and transfer the clips in FCP…I’m sure someone on the COW will disagree. I think the best project setting to use it the one you converted the clips into. To do this just drag one of the clips into your FCP timeline and FCP will ask you if you want it to convert your timeline to the clips settings. Say yes. As for the footage that was shot in 60 you will need to place it in Cinema Tools to convert it to slow mo. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials
Johannes Johannesen
March 8, 2011 at 12:38 am

thank you for the great help!!
Stephen Smith
March 8, 2011 at 2:06 am

Happy to help and best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials
Johannes Johannesen
March 8, 2011 at 11:52 am

ho stephen, one last question – is the file size supposed to get smaller once converting?
thanks, J
Stephen Smith
March 8, 2011 at 4:31 pm

It should get bigger. I just transferred a 167mb clip and it made it 658mb.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials
Johannes Johannesen
March 8, 2011 at 4:47 pm

i tried various things and read up about this, its weird, converting the files to xdcam makes them smaller but converting them to apple pro res 422 (hq) does tripple their size. (funny that people reccomend even doing this…)

however, is apple pro res 422 hq the best setting to use then? What do you personally convert the files into (keeping in mind HD)?

Is it ok if in FCP the pixelformat of the file (and sequence) states ‘square’ rather than HD (1440×1080)? I guess I can work with this for now and then export it to HD?!

sorry for all these silly questions…. and many thanks for the help!!
Stephen Smith
March 8, 2011 at 5:43 pm

XDCAM is a GOP format structure. ProRes is an individual frame format. This lessens the load on the system, as GOP formats are processor intensive. It also makes renders and exports occur faster.

I would go with ProRes 422 hq

1440 x 1080 is 1920 x 1080 squashed. FCP will play it as the proper aspect ratio and you will be just fine.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials

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