Converting uncompressed AVI files for FCP?

I recently had 30 reels of old 8mm film footage from the 50's and 60's converted to digital and I now have a hard drive with all of the footage converted to uncompressed AVI files.  These are extremley large files as one 2 minute and 38 second clip is 4.45 gigs. 
I want to bring them into Final Cut Pro to edit them but retain as much quality and picture as I can.  I am going to use Mpeg Streamclip to convert the AVI files to quicktime Mov. files but what compression setting and frame size should I use when converting them to Mov. files for best results?  As far as frame size, should I use 648 X 486 4:3 aspect ratio or 720 X 486 unscaled?
Thanks in advance for any advice. 

Given the material, standard ProRes or even ProRes LT (if you have FCP v7) is fine.
ProRes HQ is intended for 35mm film out and/or 2k video. It is a waste of file space and processing overhead for your purposes.
x

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