30p with a Canon XA10 - need help with Final Cut 7 "FIELD DOMINANCE" setting and an explanation of "drop frames". Thank you!!

Question

I shot footage using a Canon XA10 and there are issues with the HD quality not looking as crisp as it should.  I am trying to make sure the settings in Final Cut are right.  Need help confirming what should be in "Field Dominance" --- have seen discussions about making sure it's set to "none" but I'm confused as to what to do. 
Also someone suggested I use "drop frames" to change from 30p to 24p within Final Cut.  He couldn't explain how to do it so any input appreciated as well as any thoughts on whether this is a good option to try.

Answer 1

If you're shooting 30p, field dominance should be set to none.   Since you need to use log and transfer to bring this material in to fcp, I would assume it would be set correctly automatically.  Are you sure you've set the camera properly?
Drop frames will not change 30 p to 24p.   Dropframe timecode simply refers to the number assigned to each frame which drops an occasional number (not any frames) so the timecode duration is the actual duration, since 30p videoi is actually 29.97 frames per second which each frame assigned a timecode number. 
This is very basic video stuff and requires some basic knowledge of video.  Wikipedia is a pretty good resource for much of this stuff plus there are lots of great resources on the web.  Look up interlaced and progressive video, 24p and 30p. 
And as far as judging quality, you can only get an accurate view of the quality in fcp when you have a video card attached to a video monitor.  The viewer and canvas are only an approximation of what the quality is.  Minimally, set the canvas or viewer to 100% to get a better approximation of the quality.