eyestrain, carpal tunnel syndrome/repetitive strain injury…

[Walter Biscardi]

Drop the screen resolution a bit on the monitors, this will enlarge the text.

Use a Wacom Tablet instead of a mouse to eliminate carpal tunnel. I’ve actually had producer / editors who thought they would have to stop editing entirely due to carpal tunnel, but then I showed them the tablet and they were able to continue. The tablet is the only device I’ve seen that does not introduce any sort of repetitive injury.

As for the keyboard, I use the Bella FCP Pro keyboard, but I primarily work off the tablet and the keyboard buttons in my timeline, so I’m not using the keyboard constantly.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Rather than struggle with screen resolution matters, or unadjustable keyboards, I’ve solved this to my own satisfaction by building an appropriate desk to work at FCP on.
1. The keyboard is positioned on a low protruding shelf, much lower than conventional desks, and of very thin plywood, so that it can be just above my knees, because…
2….I have a higher-than-normal fully adjustable (comfy) chair to sit on, with spatially positional adjustable arms on which my elbows can rest.
3. My two large screens are raised above the desk surface, and are quite near to me, so I can work fairly close to the front of the screen when neccessary.
The wheeled chair base allows me to push away whenever I need to sit back and check a sequence looking at the video monitor, and relax my close-focus.
(I love the fine detail of a Mac application, compared to the usually coarser (uglier) GUI provided by Windows – and it was even better in OS 9 😉 )
4. In the gap above the keyboard shelf below the monitors there is a deep recess where the keyboard can be pushed back when I need to handle papers or scripts, and where pens and other desktop junk can be available, but out of the way.

So even if FCP had a more configurable GUI I don’t think I would find the need to reconfigure it.
But its taken about 3 iterations of desk construction to get something that is right for me….
Given that I’m often stuck here (happily) editing for hours and hours at a time 🙂

[Stu Siegal]

I had a nasty repetative stress injury in my right hand & wrist several years back, and one of the changes I made as a result was to become mouse ambidextrous. Over the course of a day, I regularly swap the mouse between left & right sides, and it’s been a very helpful part of my strategy to avoid a repeat injury. Takes some patience to learn, but well worth it.

G5 Quad Core, 4.5 MB RAM, Dual Dell 1905FP’s, KRK RP-5’s, DSR-11, FC Studio 5.1.2 OSX 10.4.8

[Graeme Nattress]

Walter, I think you’re right and that a Wacom is a key thing to help editors (and all computer users) avoid repetitive strain.

After that, it’s desk and monitor height, and a good chair.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Steven Gonzales]

Problems come from overuse of certain muscles, and underuse of others. Since beginning yoga practice regularly, I have reduced problems almost completely.

Here is a site with some stretches which are useful for rsi:

https://www.will-harris.com/yoga/rsi.html

Also, if you’re right handed, this mouse is helpful, though not fancy (only two buttons):

https://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ergonomics/home/products/ergonomicmouse/

[Nate]

I want to say, It is a lot better than the old days. I still have my Ab suite working and turning those knobs for hours would just destroy my wrist & eyes… So when I added FCP to the suite I built a special desk, A low keyboard on a retractable shelve, The 23 Cinema Screen monitor maybe 20 inches from my nose, ( I am near sighted) the NTSC Monitor a little further away so I could exercise my eyes, Wacom Tablet for the right hand, learn the key short cuts for the left hand and a Shuttle Pro for the left hand for fast scans and edits….

The old AB way after 6 hours I was in pain, the new FCP way – 14 hours later I don’t realize until I see the sun rising…

With FCP you can fix these problems., no excuses, no pain, no State safety committees… get it fixed… before it becomes an excuse not to edit your best…

[Jason Porthouse]

I have to agree regarding the text and button size. It’s long been a bugbear of mine. My Silver had a customizable UI and BIG buttons, which I always found productive ’cause you didn’t have to be hyper-accurate to hit them.

The 30″ screens are even worse… text being that much smaller (seemingly). I think Apple really need to fix this one soon – I hope someone is listening, but I suspect it’s what happens when the geeks take over the asylum.

As to RSI and Carpal Tunnel, I second the Wacom, and I also find that variety is the spice of life… have a tablet, a mouse, and the keyboard and use them all. A good chair is a must too, and don;t skimp on it – some ‘ergo’ chairs are not ergonomic at all, they just look it. I’ve got a Herman Miller Aeron, cost me

[Graeme Nattress]

Apple are working on a resolution independent display system for Leopard that might help with this.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP