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Sony Ex1 XDcam import – could almost be funny!
Hi Guys
I know this is a mainly FCP place so I fully expect to get my ass kicked!
OK. So in the beginning, FCP would just WORK with any QT filetype. Like, you could just drag files onto the desktop and edit. Us Avid guys would weep at that ability. Although it didn’t bother us too much whilst we were tape based.
Now that file-based editing is de-facto, the FCP way seems very attractive. However, all my googling and research says that I have to convert EX1 footage before I can edit. Doesn’t this go against what I just said? Or is my information old? I’ve tried and tried to find up to date info.
The funny part (or could be funny if it worked!) is that Avid now can link to any file format including EX footage. Now, if only they could make their advertised features work….!
Question is, what is the 2011 way of getting EX footage into FCP?
Many thanks
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4 Replies
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The footage is brought in the same as always. We use XDCAM Transfer to bring it in and it edits natively with no problems at all. I just put the SXS card in the slot of my MacBook Pro and import to what ever folder I want and then start editing. Easy as pie!
Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro -
Many tapeless formats don’t record files that you can just grab and work with natively in FCP. XDCAM is one of them. YOu need to use the XDCAM TRANSFER UTILITY to wrap those files into QT, and THEN bring them into FCP.
As said…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Exactly, It takes about 6-7 minutes to bring in an hours worth of XDCAM from a 16 gig card into Final Cut Pro (using Log & Transfer or XDCAM transfer utility) if you use a Firewire 800 card reader or a card slot on a MackBook Pro… Longer if you use USB but still way faster than real time. Like Shane says, it is just “re-wrapping” the files not actually “re-encoding” them to another format for Final Cut to use.
If you want a “straight to ProRes” option you can use a KiPro fed from the HD/SDI of the EX and then you can have true direct to edit functionality, as well as a superior compression scheme compared to XDCAM…. but you will trade that for larger files sizes.Good Luck!
Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com -
Funnily enough, I’m just setting up to do the same thing myself (having had the importing done for me at a facility in the past) and I’m hearing that Sony’s SxS cards can go in the Express Card slot in a Macbook Pro if you load Sony’s driver and that their Transfer software can convert the files to Quicktime as it comes in. (I’ll know more next week when I’ve done some tests.)
You can download Sony’s software free at https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/eSupportHome.asp
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