[filipep]

I'm a new owner of an Canon HF200 and i'm thinking of using it with Final Cut Express...

Can anyone tell me the best setup, camera and software, to get the most of my camera?

Thanks

[senu]

I take it you mean presets.
. you already have the camera and software..

[filipep]

yes presets
like what preferences do you use on FCE....
which are the presets that you use to export movies...

I'm familiar with the software but i can't get the movie quality right....



Thank you

[A n d r e w]

A few things we need to know in order to give you the right advice:

1. What version of FCE are you running? You'll need version 4 to work with AVCHD video.
2. Is your camcorder the 50i or the 60i model (i.e., where did you purchase it?)
3. How do you intend to view or distribute your movies? On your Mac? On the web? On DVD? Etc.

As far as the FCE preset for importing your video goes: go to Easy Setup (^Q) and select "AVCHD - Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50" (or 1080i60 if your HF200 is the 60i model).

Connect your camcorder (it will need to be connected to the mains supply, or you can eject the SDHC card and use a USB card reader instead of connecting the camcorder with the supplied USB cable) and use the Log and Transfer tool (Shift-Cmd-8) to preview, select in and out points, and add clips to the transfer queue.

If you're new to FCE, I recommend getting yourself a book to help you get to grips with the basics and get the most out of the Final Cut experience. Diana Weynand's "Final Cut Expresss 4: Movie Making for Everyone" is pretty good, but there are others.

[filipep]

thank you

The Quick Setup wasn't right...

i will distribute on my mac, web (for friends) and DVD (maybe)...

About the book I'm watching a lot of tutorials...

Thank you

[A n d r e w]

H.264 is a good codec choice for viewing HD content on your Mac (assuming you have an up-to-date version of QuickTime) and for uploading to the web. There's a pretty good tutorial here: it's for iMovie, but the principles are the same for FCE, as iMovie and Final Cut both use QuickTime to handle exporting.

As far as DVD goes, iDVD does a pretty good job of downscaling HD video to standard definition mpeg-2. Just export at full quality from FCE (you'll need plenty of hard drive space for the exported movie and iDVD's rendering process, but once you're done you can delete the exported movie - just remember where you saved it to - and iDVD will delete its own render files once your DVD is burnt), choose a menu and drag the full quality QT movie across or, if you want a DVD that plays automatically without a menu, there's an option in the iDVD File menu for "OneStep DVD from Movie."

The shorter your video, the better the DVD results will be as there will be less compression involved fitting your file onto the 4.7GB of space on a standard DVD.


Note for Senu:Any chance you might be able to edit the subject header for this thread, say to something like "Help with AVCHD and Final Cut Express," to help folks find it in the future?

[filipep]

Thank you... You are being very helpfull!

It's working... thanks

When you say "FULL QUALITY" is DV STREAM?



Sorry if i'm too abusive

[senu]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

Note for Senu:Any chance you might be able to edit the subject header for this thread, say to something like "Help with AVCHD and Final Cut Express," to help folks find it in the future?

Thanks for that
The title is changed as suggested

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by filipep

Thank you... You are being very helpful!

No problem - it'd be rude not to be!

Originally Posted by filipep

When you say "FULL QUALITY" is DV STREAM?

No - Using DV stream will result in downscaled standard definition video, which is not what you want. Just export without using a compression codec. Because your video is converted to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) when importing, when you export without a codec FCE will create an AIC QuickTime movie. In other words, there will be no additional compression. Hopefully this will make sense. I'd be more specific (with a screen shot of the appropriate settings) but I'm nowhere near my Mac at the moment.

Originally Posted by filipep

Sorry if i'm too abusive

Not at all. Not thanking me and telling me to f* off instead would be abusive. Not that that ever happens . . .