Canon 7D - Editing in Avid Media Composer - Best VDSLR editing solution.

[plasmasmp]

Today I did a trial with the test clips floating around with Avid Media Composer 3.0. The software supports the Canon 7D 1080p footage at 23.98 perfectly.

What does this mean?

No more transcoding with NeoScene, instead you can use the great DNxHD codec witch allows you to edit DNxHD 175x footage fullscreen in realtime on a lowly Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz CPU.

The benefits don't end there, you can also use some effects in realtime as well depending on the speed of your computer. For those you are planning on using anamorphic lenses, you can squeeze the footage and still edit in realtime. (Imagine having 3 monitors, two dedicated to your timeline, and a third for simply 1080p editing.)

There are Media Management benefits as well. Just pop in your CF card, Import the footage, and it will be transcoded and saved on another drive at nearly the speed it would take to just dump the card to your computer directly.

Want to finish in another program or do VFX. You can easily and quckly export a Quicktime reference file of your timeline that will allow you view your edit in other programs (realtime) and not have to deal with having to make another render of your timeline until you are ready to export your finished product. It is much better than dealing with the cineform silliness.

 

[Alpha Beta Omega]

Avid is pretty smooth once the material gets into the avid file structure. This is my preferd editing software despite it's shortcomings.

 

[tony404]

Do you have links to the raw test footage would like to play around with it on vegas. Thanks

 

[plasmasmp]

I dont see the links up anymore for 24p, but you can get 30p and 60p samples from this page:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10042-10239-10240

 

[tony404]

I dont see the links up anymore for 24p, but you can get 30p and 60p samples from this page:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10042-10239-10240

I dont think those are raw files, was looking raw files. How my system deals with them will make up a big part of my decision.

 

[el presidente]

I aint tried it with 7d footage but I find my cineform prospect is a good less brittle format to edit in but it isnt cheap...used to work well with my d90 and works with my ex1 footage too.

but thats with premiere...dont know if it works on your system

 

[Boz]

I dont think those are raw files, was looking raw files. How my system deals with them will make up a big part of my decision.

I believe those are raw files straight from the camera. From the site:

"These clips have been trimmed for length but are otherwise unedited."

 

[Sttratos]

I could import Bloom's "Dublin's People" movie into FCP so I guess FCP has no problem with 7D material either.

 

[Bandido]

Pasmasmp,

Can you please share your workflow with us?. Did you use metafuze or other third party program to convert the 7d native video files to Avid's dnxhd?. Can you do that within Media Composer sofware, without Nitris?. What is your Avid platform, PC or Mac?. I am considering buying the Canon 7d with Avid MC 3.5 software. Thank you!

 

[ChipG]

I just imported Phillip Blooms footage with Avid Media Composer 3.0, goto file (top left of the screen), click import, I used DNxHD 115 but you wll have video resolution choices that range from DNxHD 36 up to DNxHD 175 X 10 bit, select the codec of your choice, select the file, click open and it imports and converts it to the DNxHD codec you selected and puts it in the Avid bin. Easy and fast. I'm playing around with the colors and effects in boris cc 6.0 and the 7D stuff holds up pretty well. I'm impressed.

EDIT: I did this wthout metafuse or any 3rd party programs, Media Composer 3.0 on a PC. Simple, easy and fast

 

[Voytech]

Dublin's People was encoded especially for Vimeo. This is NOT representative of the files 7D creates. I believe he mentioned that it was encoded at 8000bps. That's a far cry from the 38000bps the camera produces.

 

[ChipG]

Good deal, sounds like I'll really be impressed when I get my cam

The file I am playing around wth is the 250mb download file

 

[plasmasmp]

Pasmasmp,

Can you please share your workflow with us?. Did you use metafuze or other third party program to convert the 7d native video files to Avid's dnxhd?. Can you do that within Media Composer sofware, without Nitris?. What is your Avid platform, PC or Mac?. I am considering buying the Canon 7d with Avid MC 3.5 software. Thank you!

No need for any intermediate software, just import the footage and it will convert it without any other intermediate program.

 

[Alpha Beta Omega]

With either Xpress Pro or Composer it's easy to import the native files to DNXHD. If you do import and work in 720/50 project you can set speed at 50% for 720/50 clips and get a perfect slow motion. 1080/25 clips will be downscaled to 720.

Avid always converts file on import exception MXF files which you copy into the Media Files folder.

 

[sunburst]

good for you.

but I cant stand avid. yucch. It takes over your whole computer.

I much prefer Vegas type method where you can explore and use different
file types - at YOUR choice.

 

[Alpha Beta Omega]

True dat. I do use Premiere for AVCHD clips but on my laptop Avid runs like a marathon runner.

 

[zeke]

A new copy of Avid Media Composer 4.x is 2495.00 (you do get a lot of software with it though). Vegas Pro 9 plus NeoScene is less than 1K, and you get a lot more built in stuff in Vegas (like support for 4K editing on the timeline and surround audio mixing built in). But Avid, like Premier, has a lot more plug-ins available for it.