Best compatible Pro HD Camcorder for FCP 6?

I am used to the old days of mini-DV format when things where simple LOL! With the introduction of new formats I do not know which way to go?
Can someone help me in the best HD Camcorder for ease of capturing and editing. I will need to give pros and cons to my boss. I know DV tape is still easy to capture and edit but what is the cons of it now a days?
I heard with compressed formats editing can be difficult and still has issues??
Budget wise looking at options in the $2500K up to $4K.
Thank you

I use HDV in a Sony V1U. I used to edit in HDV natively, but now I capture to ProRes 422 (NOT HQ) any my G5 Quad does it in real time.
Pros: HDV uses DV tape which is inexpensive and great for archiving: capture it, then stuff in in its case, then in a plastic box (I got mine from Tapestockonline.com) for safekeeping.
ProRes edits easily, but if you have multiple streams (like multiclip, composites, etc.), you may run out of disk band width. I use the internal 7200RPM drives, or external FW800 drives and get two to three streams. More than that and you need a RAID (see CalDigit). A trick: put different captures on different devices/busses: one stream on an internal SATA, another external FW800: you are sort of doing a poor mans performance RAID.
Cons: a drop out on tape may mean up to 1/2 second of missing video and audio data. Whoops! I use Sony HDM-63VG (videographer grade: $8/tape) and have never had this issue.
Capturing HDV to ProRes 422 is only "capture now." There is no log an capture, so recovering from a failing disk drive is more complicated... You could capture to native HDV, then convert it in and FCP sequence set for ProRes 422, or using Compressor.
Prores 422 takes about 4x the disk space as HDV (or DV, for that matter).
I will eventually go to solid state capture, and the new JVC's are pointing in the right direction. Long GOP mpeg2 on SDHC will be more reliable than tape, so dropouts should not be a problem. I'd probably still convert to ProRes 422, however. Buying bare drives and a Wiebetech ComboDock is about as cheap as archiving tapes.
Just some thoughts: no conclusion.
Eddie O
PS: with the NEW JVC camera, does anyone know if the color space is 4:2:2 or 4:2:0?
Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates
Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates

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Camcorder for FCP

Looking into getting a camcorder for making video of a lesson about 20 min long.Camcorder will be on a tripod. Will be editing in final cut pro on iMac.Budget $500 range.
I am looking for good video, good sound and seamless (easiest and fastest) transfer of video from camcorder to iMac and final cut pro.
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I have looked at these, and it seems they are all in range of what I am looking for. They all fit in the apple specs, but from amazon reviews, someone always has had some difficulty in transfer process or something. So if anyone has advice that can tick the all the boxes, it will be much appreciated
$500
Good video
Good Sound
Easy transfer to iMac and FCP. Easy being plug it in and go ( If thats possible).
Thanks
Panasonic HC-V110 Light Weight HD 1080p Digital Camcorder (black)
Canon Vixia HF R300 Full HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 51x Advanced Zoom
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I'm with Russ - all AVCHD, all easy with FCPX ...
meant as an addendum:
• audio - what Russ allready said: depending on your recording situation, you'll need a Lav- or shotgun-mic; or a complete external audio-solution, FCPX multi-cam feature makes it drop-dead-easy to synch different video+audio sources.
• light - you get a softbox/lamp/tripod-combo for less than 50$ .. adds incredible 'bang' for little bucks to your videos Do not rely on 'low light performance' - low light='noisy' pics=cheap look. photography is painting with light ... you get a superb pic with a low-budget cam with lots of light; search at YT for '3 point lighting' tutorials... you get with really cheap equip a professional 'look' - but with lights, not the cam itself...
• wide-angle - in rooms, a 30mm-lense could be too narrow.. depends on your recording situation, have an eye on that, test it.
• if your recordings are 'single shots' (=done in one take), consider a used/super cheap/low quality 2nd cam, to get a 2nd perspective for a sort-of b-roll... cut-aways avoid too much 'boredom' ... steal from the pros: if the pic-quality of that 2nd unit is ... cheap, make it b/w, add (!!) noise.
I've seen many 'instructional' videos (e.g. musicians) - 25min, one shot ... < snore, falling asleep > ... add at last a little movie-magic to your videos...

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Right, so I have a rough budget of £500 and I need the best camcorder I can get for money. It must be compatible with FCP and Express. Can anyone out there help me with my predicament??
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Better information, you'll get better responses over the next few days, keep reading.
Best for me includes excellent low light functions and excellent glass. I need neither digital zoom nor auto gain.
Decide on an acquisition format by determining what you expect to do with the movies you create. You may not need full 1080 but can get by with 720. Resist cameras that record in a codec that must be transcoded before editing.
bogiesan

Best Low Cost Camcorder for FCP?

I'm going to take back a Samsung D453 camcorder because it has time code breaks during capture. Does anyone have any recommendations for a low cost DV camcorder that is supported by Final Cut Pro?

Actually, recording timecode on a tape might have been a good idea with analog crash recording, but it does not make sense on DV camcorders. If nothing else you end up recording twice on the tape which increases wear on the camera heads and doesn't do much for the tape either.
As an alternative to blacking tapes, simply record the first 30 seconds or so of the tape without images. Use a bars and tone if the camera can generate one. Otherwise use the FCP version. This gives you enough preroll area for capturing all material after this point.
Once into the tape, just make sure when you stop recording, the heads are in a position that will allow them to pick up the timecode and continue on. As long as you do not rewind and review the footage you are good to go. If you must rewind & review, stop the play back a few seconds short of the end of the previous shot.
So to recap. Generate bars and tone for the first 30 seconds of the tape then give your self enough preroll on each shot as well as an additional few seconds at the end of each shot.
If you must review a shot/scene in camera, stop the tape before the end of the scene so the camera can pick up the timecode as it moves on.
Good luck.
x

Best "pro-sumer" camera for FCP?

Hoping to find a $600-$900 camera that is Final Cut Friendly. (I can spend more but would love not to.)
I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the websites.... Would any of you be willing to be my hero?
Brad in Denver
PS. The only thing I MUST have is:
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     • Great zoom would be fab.

Bubalooney wrote:
… How does one make an inteligent decision about how much zoom is enough? …
A professional would never ever … ok, in very rare cases use a zoom.
Why?
A Zoom is always a compromise - in quality (ok, will an amateur notice? No), and, more important, in 'speed'.
Most BigZooms offer very poor speed, starting somewhere at f3.6 and finally on long range, f8.0, f10!
Next: a tele-lens creates tons of shake! Without stabilizer, it's impossible to handle a 500mm lens. Most/many videoDSLRs do not offer staibilizers.
So, the question is: Why using a zoom at all? Why using a SuperZoom at all?
I'm usign a Pana707 - with a very strong zoom, and superb stabilizer (and using a tripod); because; i like to record the soccerr games of my son's team. I need a simple to use aka fast solution. Using the same cam indoors is nice with its 25mm, but it is really poor under low light conditions; a designated device (Canon Rebel, 35mm/f1.4.) offers much, much, much better, superb quality.-
It depends too much on your individual needs and conditions:
• a 'system cam' with interchangeablel glases could be better.
• a tiny all-in-one (like mine) could be better.
hard to give a general advice.

Extra Firewire Port on MacBook Pro - 2nd Bus for FCP??

I have a 3-month old MacBook Pro with 2 firewire ports - one is a 6 pin 400 port and the other is a 9-pin 800 port. Can the 800 port be used for an external firewire drive for Final Cut Pro if the 400 port is taken by an AJA Io LD? I've read that it's best to have a 2nd bus via a ExpressCard34, but it seems that's normally the answer for laptops that have only one firewire port. Can this 800 port be used with no problems? Is the 800 on a 2nd bus?
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I've moved to a G-Sata,via express card adapter,in combination with the Io LD,but to be honest the Io and a fw800 G-Raid didn't drop frames for me in uncompressed SD.
Regards,
Will.
MacBook Pro 17" Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 5.1.2
MacBook Pro 17" Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 5.1.2

Best Mac Pro (2013) configuration for photo editing/processing?

Hi all,
I couldn't find a reliable answer to this in my searching here or on google, hence I'm posting it here.
I'm going to buy and upgrade to the new mac pro when it's announced this month (Dec 2013). My primary use will be photo processing in photoshop.
Configuring it with 64gb RAM is the no-brainer part. And probably a 512gb or 1TB flash drive too.
The bit I'm unsure about is whether to opt for the 6 core processor option over the quad core? For photo editing (adding layers, filters, brushing in, multiple files open at times, running batch edits etc), does anyone have an opinion on whether the performance increase (if there is in fact any increase for photo work?) of the 6 core 3.5ghz would justify paying the extra AU$1300 difference over the quad core 3.7ghz option?
And from my earlier research paying the huge prices for 8 or 12 cores would simply be a waste for photo processing.
Thanks for the advice...

Mozzzaaa
I have the exact same requirements, here are my findings based on some observations from Activity Monitor and research based on how the hardware works.
Photoshop does not utilize multiple cores well for many standard editing ativities - therefore one core will be busy while the rest remain idle, however I have noticed over time that upgrades to Photoshop seem to take more advantage of multiple cores as Adobe updates the code. For example, appling filters utilize all of the cores while the filters are computing changes (smart sharpen for example). Try running CPU monitoring in Activity Monitor (double click the CPU graph to display all cores).
Lightroom utilizes all of the cores for Import, export and other activities that process multiple files. Being more modern code, it beter utilizes muti cores.
Keep in mind that each core handles two code threads, therefore a four core system is capable of processing 8 "streams" of code, the 6 core can manage 12 threads, etc.
Here is a screen shot of Mac Book Pro running PS CC Smart Sharpen:
All the new Mac Pro run at 3.9Hz Turbo Boost - they are all the same in that respect. This means that when the processers are not hot, at least one core will run at 3.9Hz - therefore on a relativly idle machine (just editing in PS for example) you would likley be running at 3.9Hz on all the Mac Pro 2013.
There are also the GPUs to consider. Apple as usual has not made enough information available to easly determine the cost benefits of the more powerful GPUs and I don't know if PS would utiliize the AMD GPUs well now, or perhaps better utilize them for the future. Perhaps someone could comment on that. Here is an interesting article: http://architosh.com/2013/10/the-mac-pro-so-whats-a-d300-d500-and-d700-anyway-we -have-answers/
Clearly the D500 that is standard with the 6 core seems a major bump over the 4 core D300 (therefore the costs of the 6 core reflect that). I don't know how much the D700 would cost - it would be helpful if this were published so I could consider my order.
There are two GPU in the new Mac Pros - but the purpose of the second one is not toally clear (thanks again to Apples's communication). It likley will be utilized for all sorts of things that don't really exist now and FCP X is scheduled for a new release better utilize the GPU for video (as nwaphoto mentioned video processing will be a major use of this equipment).
I was interested in your comment regarding 64 Meg ram. Yes that would be a hudge boost to PS performance, but would it be better to purchase from Apple or wait for OWC who offer RAM at major discounts over Apple. Once again, no info yet that I am aware of.
I believe the flash drive is upgradable but rumor has it that it uses a proprietary connecter. Makes me want to go with the largest size but once again OWC might be the way to go for an upgrade in a year or two.
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Upgrading a Mac Pro 1,1 for FCP X

I'm starting with a Mac Pro 2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon with 4GB RAM (4x 1GB Modules) and Geforce 7300 GT. I run FCP 6 on DV footage. My goal is to run FCP X working with AVCHD from consumer level cameras, DSLR video from cameras such as the 5DMkII, and the Canon XF300. The Scratch Disks are 7200 RPM HDD's either in the Mac Pro's additional drive bays or connected via eSATA. What I'm thinking is to replace the stock video card with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and increasing the RAM to 12GB by adding 4x 2GB Modules. My level of complexity for edited projects is basic transitions, lower 3rds, and ocassional use of three way color correction. With the upgrades I have listed here, do you think I have sufficient hardware to get started with FCP X? Anything else I should be aware of either hardware or software related?

AVCHD is fairly processor intensive, being so compressed. So, I'd suggest downloading the free trial of FCP X to get an idea of how well your current CPU will handle some of this footage. You can transcode it to ProRes. Just keep in mind your files will get a lot bigger.
You might want to check on the current status of XF300 support. I think you might have to re-wrap those files into *.mov files. I do when I use Sony's XDCAM EX format. Not an issue, just make sure you understand what it takes to work with Canon's format. (or Sony's)
Check to make sure the 5770 will work in your Mac Pro. I have one in my Mac Pro 3,1 and it's fine. But I had heard there might be some capatibily issues with older Mac Pros.
You might want to consider more than 12 GB of RAM. On my system, FCP X seems to hover around 7 GB of real memory.
It can be a touch decision to upgrade an old Mac Pro, or simply getting a new system. I wouldn't suggest getting a new Mac Pro now. Intel's new processors should be out in 1Q12 and they will be significant upgrade to the current offering.
The new iMacs (specifically the fastest ones, with the most GPU RAM) are very good FCP X editing machines. They can keep up with the fastest Mac Pros, for less money. But, you do loose internal expansion and would have to move to Thunderbolt. Probably at least three times the perfomance of what you have now.

What CHEAP camcorder for FCP (UK)?

Hi all,
I work in a college and we have lots of cheap mini DV camcorders which we use with FCP. We find cheap is better cos on our limited budget we cannot afford to replace expensive kit, and also we have so many students doing media we could not afford expensive camcorders for all.
Obviously now mini DV is on the way out we are hoping to gradually go over to flash-memory based camcorders. I am aware that FCP does not handle AVCHD easily, and it seems most (all?) camcorders in the sub-£400 bracket are AVCHD based. Can anyone recommend any camocorders that are not, and that work well with FCP6? If not, what about FCP7?
Thanks,
Sean

seanofford wrote:
...transcoding does not take for ever, and file sizes are only about the same as movs?
Sean
Transcoding times are directly dependent on the type of the machine, the file size and the end medium. You're using a laptop so it's not gonna leave markings on the tarmac.
ProRes is a very fine format. It is much bigger than AVCHD but we're talking about a master quality professional codec with relatively small size compared to a codec never meant for editing. Try not to confuse the .mov extension, it is a wrapper and can contain from e.g 4k RGB 10 bit uncompressed up to plain ol' .H263-4, and the sort.
If you're going to use an AVCHD camcorder you're going to have to deal with the this process or switch to something like Adobe CS5 which has however yet to prove its robustness. CS4 proved to be very, very, very buggy and unreliable.

Best Mac Pro 2013 Config for photography?

I am a pro photographer who is interested in getting maximum performance for the task of editing still images, mostly large files in the 100- 200 MB range . My go to apps are Lightroom5 and Photoshop6. My number one priority is speed/effeciency. Cost is important but secondary. In other words I want the best possible system for the task at hand but I don't want to max out on cost for options that will offer little or no performance benefit for what I will be doing. Thanks in advance for any insights.
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I think you will find the answer from a like minded user blog
http://www.macperformanceguide.com
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http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2013/20131219_1-MacPro-whatIOrdered.html

What is the Best Hard Drive Camcorder for/compatible with FCP?

Hi,
Just bought a JVC GZ-HD7...feel very trouble...unlike those MiniDV Cassette base Cam,Just plug in FireWire and FCP will read!!!To use the GZ-HD7 in FCP might use a lot of steps to convert before inport the source.
And now i'ld like to invest Hard Drive Camcorder for my FCP editing base,Is it a Good Media Format?
If yes,Which Prosumer or Semi-Pro Camcorder will you recommend?Really need your helps,maybe you are the one who are currently using it and feel happy with over all?!
Hope to get some suggestion from you guys!!
Thanks!!

http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/videocamera/hd/global/products/hdc-sd9/
Thanks for tip David. I work at a middle school, we shoot a lot of district functions with three cameras then use the multiclip function of FCP. If I bought three of these cameras do you think they will work well in that environment? here is our workflow:
1. Sync cameras with a clapper at the start of show.
2. Import into FCP
3. Mark inpoint at the sound of the clapper
4. Create the multiclip sequence and edit
We have done 50 or so shows like this with 14 year olds as the editors and the results are very nice. I would like to move to the hard drive based camera. Being in education we are on a tight budget. Think three of these camerass would work in this environment?
Thanks so much for your expert advice.

What current model camcorder is best suited for FCP 4.0

I have a PM G4 FW800 Mirror door running 10.3.2 and decided to get into this video stuff. I am a Pro Tools user.
What camcorders will work with Final Cut Pro 4
Will any 1394 Firewire Camcorders work ?
How about current Cannon , Panasonic or Sony ?
Anyone with experience ?
thanks

Most 1394 DV camcorders will work with FCP. Some older models out there (think Hi8) lack device control, but will still import using Capture Now.
There is a list of "certified" camcorders for FCP, but its vastly incomplete. I have never seen FCP simply not recognize a camcorder with FireWire.
As far as brands are concerned, it should come down to what fits your needs and preferences. All three of those big name brands should be fully compatible.

Looking for best compatible camcorder for Mac

Which format is best duited for I movie and Macbook's in general. I want a mid level camcorder for vacations and family and would like ease of use for editing in I movie & other video editing programs with my new Macbook pro. Is Mini DV still the format of choice? What about SD flash?
thanks

Start your research here:
iMovie 11 - cameras supported:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US
iMovie 9 - cameras supported:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US
iMovie 8 Camcorders supported:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014
Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Lion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4757?viewlocale=en_US
Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Snow Leopard:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3825?viewlocale=en_US

What's the best graphic card for FCP X and a Mac Pro (early) 2008?

I have a Radeon HD 3870 in my Mac Pro, it seems that I cannot use this configuration with Final Cut Pro X. Then what's the best graphic card for FCP X usable in a Mac Pro (early) 2008?
Thx,
Phil

You can get a 5770 radeon ATI MAC card
Avoid the 5770 cards on ebay and Amazon - many are black market or manipulated cards.
Buy it from Apple online store or B&H photo or Macconection
And in my case, I was able to sell my old 2600 XT card on ebay for $65 and put that money toward a 5770 card (Which was about $230 minus the $65)
I installed the 5770 in my early Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 and it works great

I have brought a 17'' MacBook Pro 2.5ghz core 2 duo 2gb. Model A1261. It seems I can upgrade to either 8gb or 16gb ram! But since It's 2006'ish, I just want some advice on the best ram that would work for a good price. Thanks :)

I have brought a 17'' MacBook Pro 2.5ghz core 2 duo 2gb. Model A1261. It seems I can upgrade to either 8gb or 16gb ram! But since It's 2006'ish, I just want some advice on the best ram that would work for a good price. Thanks :)

Keiran420 wrote:
8 gb will do I guess
Based on the information that you have supplied, you have a Early or Late 2008 MBP. Maximum RAM that it will accept is 6 GB with the following specifications: 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM.
The best sources for Mac compatible RAM are OWC and Crucial.
Ciao.

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