Working in FCP 6.06 and dark clips

P

PCAir

Member
Hi,

Does anyone use their DVX200 in FCP 6.06, (Mac OS 10.6.8.)

If I'm shooting in a low light situation, with no gain, my clips can look alright on the LCD and even on a broadcast ref monitor using the BNC Video Out. But when I transfer the .mov clips to my Mac, they look very dark in Quicktime and in FCP. It varies when I test different monitors and players, but generally some of the clips appear quite dark once they're transferred from the camera. Anyone else run into this?

Thanks,

PL
 
Not the WFM, but I do use zebra set at 80%. I guess I'll have to learn more about WFM.

The darkest clips are from a lumber mill environment At 0 gain they play back quite dark in QT and FCP but adequate bright on Video Out with BNC. At 6 db of gain they look pretty good in FCP.
 
PCAir said:
After 12 years of FCP 6.06, is 10 a major hassle to learn?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Of course it will be. But after a week or two, FCPX 10.3.1 will become your new best friend.

X is an entirely new app that is continually evolving. If you updated today you would only need to learn the new interface and not the first one. But, having come from both FCP and FCPX from their mutual beginnings, I have to say 10.3.1 is the nicest, cleanest, fastest Final Cut ever. I hated FCPX when it came out, but after a bit of time I began to appreciate it (less than a month, like 2 weeks to get used to the old interface) and it was a trial by fire for me since i bought it to work on a music video with the client sitting next to me. But, I was confident since I'd been a pro editor since 1997 (from 3/4" and BetaSP tape-to-tape, Video Toaster, Media100, ImMix VideoCube and VideoSphere, Discreet Edit, Premiere, Vegas, Avid Media Composer, etc, etc. I've even spliced Super 8 and Super 16). So, I was cool...but I wanted to throw the Mac Mini threw the wall a few times. But, after about two weeks and one happy client later, I was sold. Then the updates came and made it better and better.

Now, with the latest update which changes the entire look and layout of FCPX while keeping things simple and intuitive...it's just the best. And I'm using a 5K Retina iMac so it's pretty darn fast, even with DCI 4K footage from DVX200, Redcode and ProRes. I'm very happy with it and it's nothing like iMovie. Plus, even if you were to purchase Motion and Compressor, the entire FCPX suite winds up being less than half the price of FCP new back in the day. It still has to be learned...it's an entirely new and different app. But, once you start realizing that all the transcoding is happening in the background and you can just import clips and get right to work, with native support of XAVC and most other formats, you'll most likely be impressed, as well.

I estimate the first two weeks will suck. Then it'll start to get easier and easier. I'm still getting used to the new interface, but you won't have to unlearn FCPX 10.2, for example, as I have. But, just think of it as a new app. Make sure it runs on your Mac, though and don't upgrade in the middle of a project.
 
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