Workflow – Canon to FCP – for 5D, 550D & 7D

_The Canons shoot HD video 1920x1080 in h.264 format Quicktimes.
And thus you should convert to a Pro Res format for ease of editing.
Not a problem since EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 was released last year.
First thing: download the Canon FCP acquisition driver Canon website:

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_5d_mark_ii#DriversAndSoftware

(5D driver works for the other cameras too)
This negates the need to always convert the files using Compressor.
(n.b. Compressor can still be a good workflow in certain situations)
Best practice is to copy the files – without damaging the original file architecture, onto your desktop, and then import from there. 2 reasons for this:
1.Safety - backup of original media and
2.The internal hard drive will prove a much quicker and more stable bed for the transfer process than a card.

So, after making sure you have correctly set your scratch disks, open Final Cut. Go to File/Log and transfer and guide the menu to wherever it is you have put the files.
From there you can view the files, do some logging, choose which clips to bring in, and set any in and out point on those clips. Handy for losing those endless foot/sky/inside of case shots.
Once you have selected your shots you can then transcode them to the codec of your choice.
  And go and put the kettle on while the computer sweats.

One last thing. When your clips are sat in FCP, have a look in the Browser window at the column marked Field Dominance and they are set to Upper (Odd) set them to none.

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