OK, I’m not gonna write a lot of stuff that already hasn’t been written.  First off, here’s Scott Simmons’ post over at PVC about the Canon EOS Log and Transfer plugin for Final Cut Pro.

Now, this plugin covers the 1D, 5D and 7D cameras, but NOT the Canon T2i, the one I have.  BUT HAVE NO FEAR…if you have this camera, there is a HACK.  And it is pretty simple.  I followed the instructions (click on the picture of the code and make sure you type ALL of it) and BOOM, there my footage was.

Why would you use this over, say, Compressor (which allows for multiple processors) or MPEG STREAMCLIP (which is pretty easy)?  Several reasons:

1) This way you have a direct interface from the card or card backup (always backup the cards…full file structure) with FCP.

2) This give the footage a REEL number.  Which you can do manually, but why not have it happen automatically.  A reel number is very helpful when you need to track footage, like where it came from, and if you need to reimport.

3) TIME OF DAY timecode.  This is PRETTY important.  Compressor or MPEG STREAMCLIP will transcode the footage fine, but the timecode of each and every clip will be 00:00:00:00.  The FCP log and transfer option reads the Time of Day code of the footage, and uses that.  Pretty frickin’ cool!

4) Custom Clip Name.  FCP 7 allows you to apply a custom clip name, with consecutive numbering.  So you can do without the MV101.mov name…you can apply a new name, like the location, or subject.  That is cool too.

Now, treat the footage like any other tapeless format.  Backup the full cards to an archival solution of your choice.  Heck, if you have the cash, save the SD cards.  Certainly cheaper than SxS and P2.

OK, now I have to edit this footage from my T2i that I just transferred into FCP.  It took a while, as I transcoded to ProRes LT (destined for web only)  I’ll have to see this compared to the transfer time of the regular ProRes option.