Compatible HD movie camera for final cut express

I am in the unenviable position of having a ten year old who is savvy in Final Cut (has used it on a friends computer) and has now begged for the program for his birthday (this week). So I bought the program but now his camera has broken - can someone please please recommend a relatively cheap HD recorder that would work with final cut express (something under 500 pounds would be awesome ie under 700 USD) - finding the info online not all that helpful and have been to Apple store in London and NY! to ask which camera they would rec. but they cant recommend one (brand favourite). Be so grateful if you could help.

Hi and welcome to the forum!
The only HD formats FCE supports are HDV and AVCHD. You should be able to find middle-end models of both for under 500 pounds. I'd recommend asking your son whether he prefers the idea of the traditional tape based camcorder (in this case HDV) or wants a hard drive based camera (AVCHD). Both will work fine with FCE, and you could then do a quick and easy search on the website of your preferred manufacturer (Canon, Sony, Panasonic, etc.) or visit a local store to pick out one that works with your budget.
I could arbitrarily choose a camera for you to purchase, but without knowing your needs it really would be better for you to use this information to pick out one that you like. Just be careful - if you do go for AVCHD make sure the camcorder is actually AVCHD, and not a variant like AVCHD Lite or AVCCAM. Only pure DV, HDV, and AVCHD will work with FCE.

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Best hd video camera for Final Cut Express HD?

About to purchase an HD camera for use with FCE HD ... any suggestions? Running a 2..6GHz Intel Core i& MacBook pro with 8GB RAM.

Hi
If You won on the lottery.
Google RED Cameras
astronomical costs - but that's what some pros use
nice to see then at least - no cost to view
Yours Bengt W

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The iMovie 08 clips have names like "clip-2007-08-01 12;41;53.mov" and are stored in folders grouped by dates/events. The date on the clips' files is the date you transferred them to the disk but the filename (above) is when the camera recorded the tape. You can import these files into FCE and the clip names inherit the file names.
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Regarding the quality, the FCE project is 1080i and retains the quality you captured. I have no experience exporting it to MPEG4 for a PC. YMMV. There are a bunch of options upon export. I just told it to generate 1080 at the original FPS and 1024kbps (just a number I picked). It think it said an eight minute video is going to be 100meg and take an hour to produce on my iMac. (A quick calculation tells me the size may be off by a factor of two.) The Quicktime forum may be a better place to ask this question.

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Even if the software comes pre-installed there should be disks with it. Are you sure it was pre-installed? I never knew Apple to do this in the US with pro apps products. They made bundles that came with computers, discount price if you buy a new computer, but never heard of them being pre-installed. Maybe your Dad has the boxes.

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. ???

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. How do I get it too recover it without paying for it again since I paid for it already and have projects in progress that need to be completed?

1) Partition your hard drive or add an external drive and install Snow Leopard (with the Optional Rosetta) into it and then you can dual-boot (System Preferences:Startup Disk) into Snow Leopard and run FCE 3.5 there.
2) Use one of the following methods to install FCE 3.5 into Mavericks:
a) Pacifist: http://www.charlessoft.com/
b) Jeremy Johnstone's Terminal method: http://www.jeremyjohnstone.com/blog/2012-03-11-installing-final-cut-pro-studio-2 -0-on-mac-os-x-10-7-lion.html
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Is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS worth the money for Final Cut Express?

Hi,
I'm considering a new iMac 24, but not sure if the speedier on is worth the money.
Currently I use a MacBook Pro 2.2 for Final Cut Express with a 23" cinema (mostly DV, some HD) and that works okay, but won't play back in real time when I composit video.
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The speedier video card is great for 3D stuff, but it won't matter a wink for Final Cut Express, which barely makes use of the video card.
Keep in mind that Final Cut is using the CPU, not video card, to perform the editing, decoding, and encoding of the video. The only time the video card comes into play is during playback of the video, and any of the video options available for iMacs will handle that just fine.
When you composite video, the hard-disk throughput will start to come into play. The dinky 5400 RPM disk in your laptop will adversely affect the performance of that.

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I chose the Sony because of the overall build quality: it seems like it can withstand more wear and tear from lots of use better than the Canon, and the video quality is amazing. Its only negative point would be dark indoor lighting. However I'm not sure how the Canon does in low light.
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Which camera to get for Final Cut Express 3.5HD/ upgrade to FCE 4?

Hello everyone!
I know this has been discussed frequently, but i am sort of looking for a costum made solution for me
Following situation: Macbook, 2.16Ghz, 2GB Ram, 320GB HDD @ 5400rpm.
I am running 10.5.3, have Final Cut Express 3.5 installed and am used to work in it,
mainly for editing video files not coming from a camcorder.
I have some experience in SD miniDV recording/editing though.
NOW I was thinking of getting a new camcorder in the 1500$ max range.
I want to edit video files, sometimes burn DVDs, at other times only to have them on the mac.
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So I was looking at the Sony HDR SR11 as a nice camcorder. Seen it live, seems decent.
On the other hand, is a camera which records in HDV a better solution for me?
I could keep Final Cut 3.5, no need to upgrade right?
Is it less hassle to transfer files to the mac and edit them?
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Hi Flore
This a huge debate. There are very few advantages to the new AVCHD camera's and the vgery long list of negative aspects of AVCHD camera's outweighs any usefulness of them. They are designed for Grandad to pick up and shoot good quality pictures and not for editing.
I have posted below the wiki address for AVCHD, please read the page. It is very important you do read it. It explains in depth about AVCHD.
I feel the is no real place for the hard drive based AVCHD camera. There is a place for a mini-dv tape based camera.
Life will be very hard if you go the Hard-drive camera route. Stay with tape.
Tape is cheap, hardy and easy to move around. Hard drives not so!!!
Take some time to read the following wikipedia page...PLEASE READ THIS PAGE!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
You will see that AVCHD is not all the bee's knee's.
I personally hope it dies an extremly painful agonising drawnout death.
AVCHD has no place in the professional domain.
Justin... Durban.. South Africa

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Hello,
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How do register for final cut express which came pre-installed? i'm being asked to provide a serial number - how is that possible?

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Is it worth it to start doing movie editing in Final cut vs i movie. What are the differences?

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Another very important feature (one that iMovie HD tries hard to emulate) are the live positioning and non-destructive editing/scrolling. FCP is heads and shoulders above iMovie in this regard.
For consumers also nice is the fact that transitions between clips do not shorten either clip in the time line (unlike iMovie).
There are other features that are less important to consumer-level productions (integration with Soundtrack, color correction), except one feature that I would like to see in iMovie: (nearly) arbitrary screen formats.
One really annoying fact we just found out is that if you have a new G5 (with PCI-Express slot) you need to upgrade to the new version (so be careful when you purchase an old version).
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-ch
Please Note:
I work for cf/x, and may profit from posting here.

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Branden

It goes this way: Firewire out>camera (aka A/DV coverter)>S-VHS (or composite) to NTSC monitor. The audio goes line out from the A/DV converter to speakers.
Hook everything up when the computer is off.
Turn on the camera, monitor and speakers
Turn on the computer
Launch final cut
it the image does not automatically show up on the external monitor
go to View>Refresh A/V Devices
then
Set View>Video Playback>Apple Firewire
Set View>External Video>All frames
Set View>Audio Playback>Audio follows video
all should be happy. there is probably a big section in your user manual about this stuff.
good luck.
x

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I have found that the Sony HDR-HC3E is use the 1080i25 Codec,
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So the quality of source after capture is very poor!
Is that FCE has 1080i25 codec?
Where can I find?

There's no such thing as 1080i25. The i is for interlaced and has either 50 fields or 60 fields (actually 59.97, but that's another story). There is 1080p25, but I don't believe that camera can shoot that.
Where are you looking at the playback of the captured material? QuickTime player set to high quality or somewhere else?

Using a Flip video camera with Final Cut Express

I've just recently bought one of those flip video cameras (http://www.theflip.com) which is great, but I can't seem to get the footage imported into Final Cut Express without it then needing to be rendered when I place it on the timeline.
Does anyone have experience using this camera with FCE, and if so, which settings did you use please? I've tried tweaking most of them with little success.
Thanks!

Hi Simon,
in addition to Martin's instructions I suggest you to make sure, in MPEG Streamclip:
- you actually select Export to QuickTime (not Export to DV)
- you set the right frame rate (frequency), that is 29,97 for NTSC.
Personally I usually set Interlaced Scaling checked, and Deinterlace Video unchecked, but I'm not sure these are the right settings in your case.
With the above settings you should be able to import the resulting video into FCE without requiring any initial rendering, if the FCE Easy Setup is DV-NTSC.
Warning: I use MPEG Streamclip 1.8 (the latest as fa as I know) where the Frequency parameter is in the Export main window.
Piero
Message was edited by: PieroF

Compatible HD movie camera for final cut express

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