FCP X Plugin from Canon is here

Matt Ford · February 18th, 2012, 08:32 AM

Robert.. You have to buy everyone a beer!

Nigel Barker · February 19th, 2012, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert John

Glad David figured out that turning off create optimize media in preferences lets you import your footage native. I was wrong in thinking that everything was converted to ProRes. Sorry for any misinformation.

The same option is there in iMovie except that there it's all converted to AIC rather than ProRes.

Martin Koch · February 19th, 2012, 09:03 AM

Has anyone actually produced a ProRes file using the Canon XF plugin for FCP X? Because no matter if Create optimized media is checked in the Preferences or not footage is always brought in as Apple XDCAM HD422.

The footage of the XF100/5 or 300/5 is already optimized to edit natively in FCP X just as Apple promises here: Apple - Final Cut Pro X - System Requirements and Tech Specs
under Supported Formats and I/O, Native editing4 support for: Canon XF MPEG-2; ingest supported with additional software.

No need to transcode to ProRes.
Look for yourself. Right-click a clip thumbnail in the Events browser and choose Reveal in Finder. Open in QuickTime and hit cmd i

David Dixon · February 22nd, 2012, 04:23 PM

The plot thickens.

Yes, when I import with the XF plugin, even with the transcoding turned off in Prefs, I get a file that is identified as Canon XF 422, etc.in the FCP X Inspector pane and in the Finder. Those ProRes files I was testing earlier had been imported by FCP 7.

However, a bigger problem that I see is, even if you've imported Native, once you go to create a new Project, you can tell it to base the Project Properties on the first video clip, thereby getting around the problem with using native clips, but....

In that same Project Properities box for setting up a New Project, you have to also specify Audio and Render settings, but the only choices are ProRes4444, ProRes422, ProRes422 HQ, or Uncompressed 10-bit 422. I'm out of my depth here. Does this mean that we still have to end up in ProRes after all, or does Uncompressed just mean it renders the footage back to the native format?

And, we still don't really know if choosing ProRes for import actually gives us that or not. I don't have a problem with ProRes, but figured, why convert if you didn't have to. And if we import Native, will any action that requires rendering have long render times due to also converting it to ProRes?

I haven't had time to test this more yet - anybody have an explanation of what's going on?

Mark Moreve · March 7th, 2012, 04:25 AM

Can you tell me if this is right? I have osx lion fcpx10.0.3 & have downloaded the canon .mxf to fcpx plug in. I shot some footage yesterday on my c300 and on my xf305 & I'm now trying to edit multicam in fcpx. The problem is I have loaded my footage from yesterdays shoot to a Gtech firewire 800 drive & when I try to import into fcpx via File, import files FCPX says:

"None of the selected files or folders can be imported. Change the selection and try again."

I can load the clips in from the card directly but this is not the way I work. I usually back up cards on location and then import them from a drive rather than from the cards as after the cards have have been backed up I usually need to use them again & initialize them. Basically does this mean you can't import .mxf files from a hard drive you have to use the original CF cards?
Thanks
Mark

David Dixon · March 7th, 2012, 10:33 PM

You can definitely import from either a hard drive or a card reader - I've done both. I assume you can also import directly from the camera, but have not tried that.

It sounds like either you didn't copy the full folder structure to your drive from the card, or you're pointing the Import function to the actual clips rather than the top level of the folder structure.

I can't tell you exactly how to do this, because I use the Canon XF Utility to create on-disk backups of my compact flash cards, but here's what I do:

Rather than Import Files, I use Import From Camera, then click Open Archive, then navigate to the top level of each card backup - one level above the Contents folder. Then I either import all of the clips, or take time to go through and set in/out points and just import what I want.

There are probably other ways to do this, but this works for me. So, again, just make sure that you are backing up the full folder structure and then pointing to that top level for importing.

I hope this helps.

And, in reference to my earlier native vs. prores post - I have no definitive answer. After some experimenting with XF footage, and also with some third party Motion templates I've added to FCP X, it seems to me like FCP X is just happier with prores rather than native footage from the XFs. I felt that native footage in FCP7 worked as well as prores, but for now I've given up on that and am letting FCP X transcode to prores upon import. I see no difference in the quality, so am not willing to spend further time testing.

February 18th, 2012, 08:32 AM	#16
Matt Ford Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: London Posts: 53	Re: FCP X Plugin from Canon is here Robert.. You have to buy everyone a beer! Last edited by Matt Ford; February 18th, 2012 at 03:37 PM.

February 19th, 2012, 09:03 AM	#18
Martin Koch Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Austria Posts: 36	Re: FCP X Plugin from Canon is here Has anyone actually produced a ProRes file using the Canon XF plugin for FCP X? Because no matter if Create optimized media is checked in the Preferences or not footage is always brought in as Apple XDCAM HD422. The footage of the XF100/5 or 300/5 is already optimized to edit natively in FCP X just as Apple promises here: Apple - Final Cut Pro X - System Requirements and Tech Specs under Supported Formats and I/O, Native editing4 support for: Canon XF MPEG-2; ingest supported with additional software. No need to transcode to ProRes. Look for yourself. Right-click a clip thumbnail in the Events browser and choose Reveal in Finder. Open in QuickTime and hit cmd i

February 22nd, 2012, 04:23 PM	#19
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: FCP X Plugin from Canon is here The plot thickens. Yes, when I import with the XF plugin, even with the transcoding turned off in Prefs, I get a file that is identified as Canon XF 422, etc.in the FCP X Inspector pane and in the Finder. Those ProRes files I was testing earlier had been imported by FCP 7. However, a bigger problem that I see is, even if you've imported Native, once you go to create a new Project, you can tell it to base the Project Properties on the first video clip, thereby getting around the problem with using native clips, but.... In that same Project Properities box for setting up a New Project, you have to also specify Audio and Render settings, but the only choices are ProRes4444, ProRes422, ProRes422 HQ, or Uncompressed 10-bit 422. I'm out of my depth here. Does this mean that we still have to end up in ProRes after all, or does Uncompressed just mean it renders the footage back to the native format? And, we still don't really know if choosing ProRes for import actually gives us that or not. I don't have a problem with ProRes, but figured, why convert if you didn't have to. And if we import Native, will any action that requires rendering have long render times due to also converting it to ProRes? I haven't had time to test this more yet - anybody have an explanation of what's going on?

March 7th, 2012, 04:25 AM	#20
Mark Moreve Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: london Posts: 125	Re: FCP X Plugin from Canon is here Can you tell me if this is right? I have osx lion fcpx10.0.3 & have downloaded the canon .mxf to fcpx plug in. I shot some footage yesterday on my c300 and on my xf305 & I'm now trying to edit multicam in fcpx. The problem is I have loaded my footage from yesterdays shoot to a Gtech firewire 800 drive & when I try to import into fcpx via File, import files FCPX says: "None of the selected files or folders can be imported. Change the selection and try again." I can load the clips in from the card directly but this is not the way I work. I usually back up cards on location and then import them from a drive rather than from the cards as after the cards have have been backed up I usually need to use them again & initialize them. Basically does this mean you can't import .mxf files from a hard drive you have to use the original CF cards? Thanks Mark

March 7th, 2012, 10:33 PM	#21
David Dixon Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 495	Re: FCP X Plugin from Canon is here You can definitely import from either a hard drive or a card reader - I've done both. I assume you can also import directly from the camera, but have not tried that. It sounds like either you didn't copy the full folder structure to your drive from the card, or you're pointing the Import function to the actual clips rather than the top level of the folder structure. I can't tell you exactly how to do this, because I use the Canon XF Utility to create on-disk backups of my compact flash cards, but here's what I do: Rather than Import Files, I use Import From Camera, then click Open Archive, then navigate to the top level of each card backup - one level above the Contents folder. Then I either import all of the clips, or take time to go through and set in/out points and just import what I want. There are probably other ways to do this, but this works for me. So, again, just make sure that you are backing up the full folder structure and then pointing to that top level for importing. I hope this helps. And, in reference to my earlier native vs. prores post - I have no definitive answer. After some experimenting with XF footage, and also with some third party Motion templates I've added to FCP X, it seems to me like FCP X is just happier with prores rather than native footage from the XFs. I felt that native footage in FCP7 worked as well as prores, but for now I've given up on that and am letting FCP X transcode to prores upon import. I see no difference in the quality, so am not willing to spend further time testing.