FCP 7 Will not Recognize Canon XHA1

Hi Kent, I have the same camera and the same iMac. I am about to get a LaCie external FW drive to configure everything exactly the same way. In following this post, it sounds like you were able to get it to finally work with this setup - the camera attached to the FW drive, which is daisy chained to the iMac. What finally did the trick?
Thanks,

JD

I am using my Canon XHA1 with a 400 to 800 adaptor on my iMac and Final Cut 7 is not able to find my camera. Is it because of the cable? I really can't afford to buy a big external hard drive. You'd think that 1000 software would be able to support a camera that is about three years old.

Hello,

I also use a XHA1 and had many strange behaviors when I tried to capture footage at the beginning. In the end I understood the main "problem" - it had something to do with the cam but even more with the user! For me it actually all came down to one setting in the XHA1:

Playback Standard AUTO is not a good choice in my experience ! Since I manually set the playback standard to either DV or HD - depending on the footage - everything works first time - every time!

I capture HDV to ProRes normally.

Hope that helps.

I have tried the HDV setting. No change. I can try prores.

I assume you have set the Playback Standard to HDV manually under Signal Setup? You can only change that setting, when the Firewire cable is disconnected !

I just figured it out - Set your camera output to HDV and 1080/480i and 60 frames per second
Set FCP to HD 1080i/60

Works great, even controls the camera.

Also, ran thru LaCie ruggedized drive FW 400 into drive, 800 to computer - MAC PRO Quad core

so in other words, I can't make it work unless I spend another $300 on a hard drive?

yes. Apparently, the Mac can't read devices that are 400 fire-wire, even if you have a converter.

This is not true, though there does seem to be a problem with Canon cameras, and perhaps specifically with this model.

FWIW, I have the following setup and I have no problem with capture:

MacBook Pro 15" (Snow Leopard, the new MB Pro with the SD slot)
Seagate FreeAgent 1TB External HD for Time Machine (two FW800 ports)
Canon XH-A1s (the new version with the 6-pin FW400 connector)
FCP 7.0.1

I chain the camera from the external HD with a 9-pin to 6-pin cable, and I capture to and edit from the internal 500GB HD (7200RPM), and the system works flawlessly.

I have never had a problem capturing, but as somebody said earlier, you MUST make sure your Capture Preset and Device Control Presets match the mode your footage is in. In other words, if the footage is DV, choose DV NTSC 48kHz/Firewire NTSC; if the footage is HDV, choose HDV/HDV Firewire. Also, I use the "auto" mode for playback in the camera.

BTW, I have also connected the XH-A1s directly to the MB Pro with the 9-pin to 6-pin FW cable and that worked fine too.

Just putting it out there for people considering a similar setup.

Message was edited by: Tech23

Message was edited by: Tech23

Message was edited by: Tech23

Message was edited by: Tech23

FWIW I have a brand new 2010 Macbook Pro 17", and a Canon XHA1. I just the other day did a HD live log and capture using a converter plug to go from 6 pin to 9 pin for the FW800 input to the MBP. I'm pretty sure I captured at 24F. I had no problems. No external hard drive intermediary. I think the plug is from Sonnet.

I have however had intermittent problems with my older 2006 MBP in the FW400 port. In fact right now I can't get it to recognize the camera at any setting, although it worked fine two weeks ago. I need to try the FW800 port to make sure it isn't blown or something.