loading footage from Canon Vixia HD30

Hello-
I am trying to load mini DV footage from a Canon Vixia HD30 camcorder to my Mac, Final Cut Pro, using firewire. For some reason the computer doesn't "see" the footage. But when I load other footage from my old Hi8 digital camera, it loads fine. Has anyone any experience with this?
Thanks-
Patti D.

The most common problems here are :

If you shot HDV, you need to change your easy setup to the correct format for your camera, and make sure you choose the correct frame rate. Then start a new project.

Also, the camera needs to be set to output HDV, not downconvert on the fly to DV.

And just plug the camera right into the computer. Don't go through any analogue convertors if you have been using one.

Try importing with iMovie. Then import clips into FCP

Again. going out to iMovie is not a professional workflow. If you don't care about that, then it's fine. And I don't mean that in a nasty way. I mean the format is not as good.

Hi-
Thanks for getting back to me. I will try it tomorrow. Do you know if it's possible to load the footage directly into Final Cut?
Patti

Yes, it is possible. It's a perfectly normal workflow.

If you've recorded to SD memory card, the only way I have been able to make it work is via iMovie.

She said it was mini DV though. I'm guessing she shot HDV on mini DV tape, but is set up to capture DV because of the previous camera.

I shot in HDV on HDV tape.
Tried every possible combination of camera & FCP settings for capture...never worked.
iMovie capture worked instantly first try.
Maybe there is a quality hit but it looked fine and edited fine.

Ken

Have you ever managed to make any other HDV camera work on your FCP system, Ken? Is it just that camera?

Hello-
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I was able to download the miniDV footage to iMovie, but when I transfer it to FCP, and put it in the sequence, the red line appears at the top, and the whole thing needs to be rendered - which takes at least 5 HOURS!!! Any suggestions? Is this what you had to do?

Also - I am working on a memorial service that I shot, and there was a slide show as part of it. The person for whom I'm doing this wanted to have the slide directly put into the DVD, rather than the video footage of the slide show. So I have the slide show on iPhoto, but I don't know how to export/import it to FCP.

HELP!!!
Patti

That's why we advised, don't use iMovie.

It's been a long time since I bothered with the specs of iMovie, but last I checked, it processes DV footage as .dv (DV stream), not .mov (QuickTime movie). .dv is not something you're supposed to use in editing (as Jude wrote, not as good).


www.derekmok.com

So what should I do to get the footage into FCP? The original footage is HD, not DV. Does that make any difference? Why on earth would Canon make an HD camera that wouldn't be compatible with FCP?
Patti

They didn't. It can work with FCP.
The catch is sometimes that the camera has more than one setting that determines what goes out down the firewire cable. And when you factor in all the possible settings in FCP it's hard to get them all lined up if you're new to it.

I'll assume you went through the menu setting suggested in the manual?
--SNIP--
PLAY/OUT SETUP menu option list.
- [PLAYBACK STD] and [DV OUTPUT] to select the standard of the output video.
Note that the video standard of the transferred video depends also on the standards supported by the computer.
- [AV to DV] to select whether to transfer recordings from the tape in the camcorder, set to [OFF]
--SNIP--

When you choose an easy set up of "HDV 1080i 60 firewire basic" in a BRAND NEW PROJECT, make a new sequence and delete the old "sequence 1"

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

What version of FCP are you using? Won't work with some older versions of FCP.

I'm using FCP Academic 5.1. It has capture settings for HDV, so it seems that it should work. By the way, do you know of any way to import a slide show with music from iPhoto to FCP?
Thanks for your help. I love video editing, but it's hard for me to keep up with the technology.
Patti

in iphoto, file>export>slideshow, then choose the size. I do believe that to capture from the vixia you will need to upgrade.