Canon XF 300 files into Final Cut X

[Ian Chapman]

I will shoot with my XF300 and my client wishes to edit the footage themselves on a Mac.

In simple steps (with links if possible), what does he need to install to make this an easy process to edit natively on his time line? I am assuming all he may need is on the canon utilty disc?

thanks

Ian

[David Dixon]

Yes, just install the Canon plugin for the version of FCPX on the Mac and the clips will import and edit natively. It can be found on this page if you then click the Software link at the bottom.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p...essional/xf300

[Gary Huff]

I don't know if this has been improved upon or not, but I cut a project in FCPX using the native XF 300 files and performance was quite poor. I would suggest telling the person editing this to let FCPX generate ProRes renders for better performance.

[David Dixon]

That was not my experience. I edited for three years on an old 2008 Mac Pro (although an 8-core) the clips from my XF100 - same exact codec - and it worked very well. The interface of FCPX works much snappier on a newer machine than that, but that isn't due to the codec.

In Doug Jensen's video tutorial DVD on the XF300 he also recommends editing native because in his opinion there is no advantage to transcoding. And, Apple/Canon seem to agree, since to this day FCPX does not even offer the option to transcode those clips - it's grayed out in the Import options.

Anyone that wants to can always transcode with third party software, but today the only reason to do that is if editing on a really old low powered Mac.

[Gary Huff]

It may be that it works a lot better than it did (this was on a 2013 MacBook Pro Retina that was fully specced out). I also tend to use a lot of effects for color (including secondaries and power windows), warp stabilizing, and so on, so my experience greatly differs from anyone who just sticks clips together and renders it out without touching the video.

[Doug Jensen]

David is correct, although I can't speak about the performance of FCPX because I've never used it. But back before I jumped from FCP7 over to Premiere I never has any issues whatsoever editing XF305 files natively on any of my Macs -- and that was with older, slower, Macs a few years ago. Applying effects, transitions, etc. was not a problem. If someone is having poor performance it may be a driver issue. Make sure everything necessary is installed and then it should all be real-time performance.

The Canon codec is essentially just Sony XDCAM under a different name, so any professional editor with a computer made in the last 10 years should have no issues with it at all.