# 5D3 mov footage, convert to something for FCPX?



## cayenne (Jun 19, 2012)

Hello all,

I've imported my 'raw' mov footage from my Canon 5D3 onto my macbook pro.

I have Final Cut Pro x, and from what I understand, I need to convert this footage to some other format, before I can edit it in Final Cut Pro X.

Can someone give me some idea what to do...what to convert it to, how?

Links greatly appreciated, not seeing much yet on my searches....I see something about Pro Res, but not sure how to do that yet...is this a 3rd party utility?

TIA,

cayenne


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jun 19, 2012)

You need to convert to prorez to edit, mov files are not edit friendly, but prores is. After you edit, you will want to save as a player friendly file.

http://prores-aic-converter.com/?tag=transcode-canon-mov-to-prores-codec-on-mac-os-x-lion


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## cayenne (Jun 19, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> You need to convert to prorez to edit, mov files are not edit friendly, but prores is. After you edit, you will want to save as a player friendly file.
> 
> http://prores-aic-converter.com/?tag=transcode-canon-mov-to-prores-codec-on-mac-os-x-lion



Thank you for the prompt reply.

Hmm...seems pavtube is a pay for application...is there not something from canon (I've been trying to see if the 'log' plugin Canon offers for FCP will work with FCPX) or something open source that will do this?

I know it sounds cheap after spending $$$$ on a 5D3..but just thinking....it is a codec manipulation, and would think something open source would be available ?

TIA,

cayenne


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jun 19, 2012)

cayenne said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > You need to convert to prorez to edit, mov files are not edit friendly, but prores is. After you edit, you will want to save as a player friendly file.
> ...


 
Its not likely going to be free, patent licensing fees are involved with mp4 files. Its worth the $28 to be able to get good results. It can be much more expensive. You can search for a free converter, there may be one.


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## samueljay (Jun 19, 2012)

Download Quicktime Player 7 for free, Open your Footage in it, and press Apple+E for Export, and Export is as a Quicktime Movie using the Pro Res Codec (I usually use Pro Res 422 HQ), then you're ready to edit 

Like so:


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## RichATL (Jun 19, 2012)

I'm a video rookie, but I imported the .mov files in FCPX and didn't have a problem. I'm sure it's akin to shooting stills in JPEG, but it worked.

https://vimeo.com/42902456
5d3, shot in BW, edited in FCPX from .mov files.


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## samueljay (Jun 19, 2012)

You're right Rich! FCPX can edit 5D footage natively, it was previous versions of Final Cut you really needed to go through the whole transcode process, but it could still help, I'm not sure, I haven't tried X yet!


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## daveheinzel (Jun 19, 2012)

The easiest workflow is to import the .mov files directly into FCPX. On import, you have the option of optimizing media. Check this box. This will transcode (in the background, while you edit) a better version that is faster for editing and better for color correcting. If you really want to do things manually, Compressor has nice array of formats to transcode to.


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## Axilrod (Jun 19, 2012)

Don't bother transcoding, I've edited 300 music videos in the last 8 months and done extensive testing, there are hardly any differences in performance and no noticeable differences in image quality. FCPX handles H.264 natively no problem, just import and edit. Considering you're new to this, I doubt there is anything that you will be doing that would warrant transcoding to Prores. I'd also uncheck "copy files to final cut events folder," it creates unnecessary duplicates and you can work with the files from their original location instead.

Also, work off an external drive if possible.


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## Tennesseeguy (Jun 19, 2012)

Axilrod said:


> Don't bother transcoding, I've edited 300 music videos in the last 8 months and done extensive testing, there are hardly any differences in performance and no noticeable differences in image quality. FCPX handles H.264 natively no problem, just import and edit. Considering you're new to this, I doubt there is anything that you will be doing that would warrant transcoding to Prores. I'd also uncheck "copy files to final cut events folder," it creates unnecessary duplicates and you can work with the files from their original location instead.
> 
> Also, work off an external drive if possible.



I do not agree with you. For common MOV files, for example the MOV ripped off DVD on Mac, the FCPX can support them. But some MOV files shot by Canon are encoded in the MXF container and the FCPX can not read this type MOV file ...


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## paulv1958 (Jun 19, 2012)

No problems with native 5D footage in fcpx. You do not need to transcode or convert anything. I normally create proxy media as its faster to edit & preview on low end imac. When you create the final footage, it will convert as necessary on the fly to what ever final format you want.


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## Trevor (Jun 19, 2012)

cayenne said:


> Can someone give me some idea what to do...what to convert it to, how?



FCPX Does it for you as a background task ...

Look at Preferences | Import - Make sure 'Create Optimized Media' is ticked

You can work away in the foreground and edit your footage while the conversion takes place. It's one of the big improvements over previous versions: all rendering takes place in the back ground and you can carry on working (unless you have a 286 ;-))

Look at : Window | Background Tasks

During an import. 

The only downside to the transcoding is the extra disk space used, but you can delete the extra files at the end of the project (they will rebuild if required in the future)


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## paul13walnut5 (Jun 19, 2012)

I don't use FCPX, still using tape when going to broadcasters and so still on FCP7 with blackmagic card.

I understand that FCPX can handle the movs directly, however should you have any occassion to convert in the future I find MPEGstreamclip a more useful front end to Quicktime, has a handy batch list as well, free from www.squared5.com

Your OS should have QuicktimeX, which like FCPX has divided users, some folk install QT7 as a utility (should be on your OS Snow Panther or OS Lion discs if it isn't already installed) although you will still need a pro license for QT7 (you used to get this when installed compressor as part of FCS suite- worth checking- compressor is a handy app! not part of FCPX, inexpensive to buy from app store though)


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## Axilrod (Jun 19, 2012)

Tennesseeguy said:


> I do not agree with you. For common MOV files, for example the MOV ripped off DVD on Mac, the FCPX can support them. But some MOV files shot by Canon are encoded in the MXF container and the FCPX can not read this type MOV file ...



Did you seriously create a new account to post completely inaccurate information? Based on your comments you would think you've never used a DSLR or FCPX. If it were 6 months ago you'd be right about .MXF files not playing well with FCPX, but the most recent update added support for it. Aside from that, the only Canon camera I've messed with that shoots .MXF is the C300, but all Canon DSLR's shoot standard H.264 .MOV files so whether or not FCPX supports .MXF files is completely irrelevant (and completely wrong).

Almost every single project I've edited in the last year (and I've literally done hundreds of them) was shot with 5DII/5DIII/7D and every time I used the files straight off of the card and have had ZERO issues. Initially I was letting FCP "optimize media" and there was a slight difference in export time but that's about it. Why waste the space and bog down the computer initially if it's not going to make any difference? For certain projects I'll use Premiere, but even that supports H.264 natively. The only time I convert to Prores anymore is when I'm doing stuff in After Effects. 




Not that it matters (since DSLR's don't shoot .MXF), but you had to bring up more wrong information on MXF files, so here you go:
*From an excerpt about FCPX's most recent update:*
_"In addition to multichannel audio editing tools and dual viewers*, Apple also said that it would add MXF plug-in support *and RED camera support. The new features were listed by Apple, but none of them were demoed.

*The new MXF support will allow users to access the native MXF wrapper that contains those files without a conversion. Previously, users were able to read MXF files, but not the native wrapper.*

And the addition of support for RED cameras means that users will not need to convert footage to QuickTime in order to edit it. Instead, RED content will be editable natively in Final Cut Pro X."_


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## Axilrod (Jun 19, 2012)

paul13walnut5 said:


> I don't use FCPX, still using tape when going to broadcasters and so still on FCP7 with blackmagic card.
> 
> I understand that FCPX can handle the movs directly, however should you have any occassion to convert in the future I find MPEGstreamclip a more useful front end to Quicktime, has a handy batch list as well, free from www.squared5.com
> 
> Your OS should have QuicktimeX, which like FCPX has divided users, some folk install QT7 as a utility (should be on your OS Snow Panther or OS Lion discs if it isn't already installed) although you will still need a pro license for QT7 (you used to get this when installed compressor as part of FCS suite- worth checking- compressor is a handy app! not part of FCPX, inexpensive to buy from app store though)



You're right about that Paulie, if you must transcode MPEGstreamclip is much faster. I do miss FCP7 sometimes, after using that interface for almost 10 years it was hard making a change. But for the majority of the projects I do (3-4 cameras with separate audio) FCPX is more than enough. The fact that FCP7 uses a max of 2.5GB of RAM just kills me, I would have been thrilled if FCPX had just been a 64-bit version of FCP7, but FCPX has grown on me. I hated it at first like everyone else, but instead of ditching it I gave it a chance once you get used to it it's insane how much faster everything is (I can edit 6-8 music vids in the same amount of time it took me to do 2-3 in FCP7).


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## cayenne (Jun 19, 2012)

Thank you to all for the input!!

Last night before bed, I just tried to do a direct import...and it came through!!

I didn't know about, till these posts today...what the checkmark for 'optimize' would do....and last night, even on a maxed out new macbook pro (ok, new as of Xmas 2011), my system would occasionally bog down during some tasks while rendering.

I did throw together something quick and dirty...and WOW...does it look good!??!!?

Again, thank you for the help and advice...looks like FCPX, the latest version at least....will allow you to handle direct import from 5D3!!!

Man..this is fun stuff!

Thank you,

cayenne


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## paul13walnut5 (Jun 21, 2012)

@Axilrod


> The fact that FCP7 uses a max of 2.5GB of RAM just kills me, I would have been thrilled if FCPX had just been a 64-bit version of FCP7, but FCPX has grown on me.



I just can't use it, we ingest from tape a lot, we still use conventional ENG cams (digibeta and DVCAM) so we need something sony 9 pin friendly (FCP7 + blackmagic) for timecoded capture and printing.

I am using Premiere5.5 in my i7 at home and am reaping the render time dividends. It has FCP7 keyboard shortcuts and a conventional track based layout with IO insert overlay editing. I actually used the old old premiere 6 years ago before I moved to FCP2 (FCP2 not FCS2!) so it's not too much of a leap in language to go back. And it plays nice with omfie export (which I occassionally need)

I dearly wish apple had made fcp8 with a 64bit back end. I can't believe that they cannot, and I can't believe that they didn't! Give some folk lemons and they make lemonade. I am going to try something else, probably premiere when my main MacPro suite dies, and my nect mac will probably be a PC. Sad days, but fork them.

The RAM issue is one big bug bear, but most folk cram in 16gb of ram and are still using a single conventional hard drive. It's one thing writing render files at lightening speed, it's another having fast enough RAIDs to handle it and get the full benefit.

I did a software internal RAID in bays 3&4 of my macpro tower and the data rate jumped from around 60MB/s to 220MB/s (to be fair that was using the latest barracudas) and If I were to install adapted SSD's I could probably top 450MB/s. 

Unfortunately my imac is fairly restricted at home, the thing to do it seems is to sacrifice the internal optical drive and use the E-Sata connection for an external SSD. Seems like using a slegehammer to crack a nut, so despite my 8GB of RAM I'm still saving between two fw400 drives. The system drive benchmarks at 120MB/s, but I don't want to start running the OS off of external drives. 

Anyway, back to cameras...


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## cayenne (Jun 21, 2012)

paul13walnut5 said:


> @Axilrod
> 
> 
> > The fact that FCP7 uses a max of 2.5GB of RAM just kills me, I would have been thrilled if FCPX had just been a 64-bit version of FCP7, but FCPX has grown on me.
> ...


Just reading this....sounds maybe more like a hardware problem that software problem....

Looking on this page: http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/all-features/, it appears FCPX supports tape based imports....maybe just needing to hook in a video card or firewire adapter? 9 pin sounds like it is likely a simple serial connector...and there are serial to usb connectors out there by the dozen.

Just something you might look into.

Yes, they did change the workspace with FCPX pretty drastically over the older style....but that's just something that takes a little getting used to...things change interfaces all the time. I work in the computer industry...maybe I'm just used to it happening quite a lot, but it shouldn't always be a deal breaker.

Things change in life.

Anyway, just found that this might be something you would like to look into.

The new mac pros should be out it looks like, by EOY.

I'm actually looking to build maybe a Hackintosh http://nofilmschool.com/build-a-hackintosh/...and really make a mean rendering monster out of it...for much less $$ than a real one from Apple.

Anyway..hope that helps...something to look into if you are interested in staying with the Apple products.

cayenne


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## paul13walnut5 (Jun 21, 2012)

Mac pro tower dates from jan 08, so gfx card would need replaced, would need to install new os etc and work just won't spend the cash, as the machine is still doing the job. You can run fcp7 and fcpx side by side and use fcp7 for tape duties, but hardly elegant. Killer is omfies and departure from tracks for me.

Sony 9 pin looks like an old vga connector, but carries tape deck commands and timecode.
FCPX as i understand it doesn't really do timecodes. Firewire just isn't up to the job for digibeta capture (10bit, the J30 deck allows firewire but at increased temporal compression, negating the benefit of shooting and outputting digibeta, need SDI capture, which can be done with blackmagic utility, but no fluid way back to tape)

I need them for accurate insert editing to tapes for broadcast customers, and occasions when a producer turns up with a rucksack of digi's and a paper edit.

My next suite will be a premiere. And on windows. It'll do everything FCP7 did, at the speed of FCPX and let me use tape. Apple decided to screw me over, i'll not be rushing out ti support them in the future.


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