7D Plugin for final cut has been released
 

It's here

Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR

And it came in time for my birthday! Thanks, Canon.

Now, if only I hadn't rented out my 7D kit today. Craaaaaaaap.

Interesting. So, if I've read it correctly, this allows me to ingest 7D .mov files "at high speed" into FCP. Will this be any quicker than what I do now - copy onto a RAID and then convert to ProRes in Compressor on my Mac Pro?

It should be a lot quicker than Compressor since even MPEG Streamclip is faster. I'm going to test all 3 later on tonight.

From the requirements, it looks like you have to have Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and later with either FCP 6.0.6 (last update in FCS2) or FCP 7.0.1.

I'm going to see if Leopard and FCP 6.0.6 get me anywhere. If not, Snow Leopard is only $30.

Some pitfalls ......
 

Initially I couldn't get this plugin to work as FCP kept telling me that there no files in the correct format or directory structure, even though there were. What I was trying to do was load in previously backed up 7D movie files that I had on my hard disk. However, I had deleted all those .THM files, which contain not only meta data, but a small jpg clip of each movie file. The plugin is expecting to find these as that's what it uses to build the thumbnails.

So, If like me you made the mistake of deleting all the .THM files, you will need to grab a valid .THM and copy it to the same filename (but with a .THM extension).

i.e. MOV_1234.MOV, then copy any valid .THM to MOV_1234.THM

Note that the thumbnail will be wrong but at least you will be able to ingest the file.

So now I will make disk images of my SD cards before I do anything else, and back those up.

Interesting that this plugin doesn't support the T2i. I get the same directory structure error mentioned above.

I wonder if I used a thm file from a 7D and put it in my file structure if it would work. Anyone want to send me a thm file?

The time code data is set by the THM file, so whilst you can ingest and convert the clips the time code start point will be the same. Have a look on the 5Dmk2 thread.

7d ingest workflow tutorial
 

Ok, after realising my mistake of deleting the .thm files, and after some trial and error, I thought I would put together, what I think , is a useful workflow for backing up ad card captures in a similar way to tape, and capturing using the new plugin. (I think I had too much coffee last night)!

Anyway I hope this is of some use and interest to others
YouTube - Canon 7D Final cut pro EOS plugin Ingest Workflow

Remember you don't have to make a disk image as Canon instruct, just create a folder called 'DCIM' you can put multiple sub folders in here as long as they contain .MOV and .THM files from the supported cameras. You just eject the folder from the transfer window when you are done.

As for support fro the 550D, would be nice is someone like 'Glue Tools' would produce a small app that would convert the .THM into the correct format. Shame that Canon have yet to support the plugin with a camera that supports the same video formats as the 7D. May be they will.

Extract taken from the .THM file below:
--------------------------------------------
ˇÿˇ·6Exif

My post above goes funny when I try and add the few lines of code.
Attached here is a txt file of the full post.

Here is a generic .THM if you want to test with your 550D. (zipped for integrity)

Date timecode set at 12:00:00

I thought there was to be a way to read the 7D's clips extended metadata with this plugin, if so can't seem to find it...

You are quite right, you can load from any folder if the .thm and .mov files are there. I describe a workflow that works for me and is simple to setup and use. I even copy over an empty dir, for no other reason than it's cheap to do so and makes the workflow simple.
I wanted a simple system to reference the original media in a similar way to a tape workflow and cataloging. Of course the important thing is to make sure you have a reliable backup of your original media. Single file dmg files are easy to copy around and when mounted, act much like the original sd card. Also not sure if you reset file numbering in camera and then had two files on the same drive with the same name, how fcp would deal with that, so I felt it would be safer to just backup the entire sd image.

I guess that is a way for Canon to limit the experience for T2i users, as you said.. The 7D and 550D seams to have the same video codec built so there should be no issue with the plugin..

The initative to use a 7D for holiday-pros becomes greater with a better workflow.. But on the other hand just use batch convert in compressor and set a smart folder and you get the same result ;)

(Still I want it to work with the plugin..)