Is anyone out here using the new Canon XF705 with h.265 HEVC files in FPCX? Do you know a workaround to get that footage into a timeline to work with it? Do we know when FPCX will support this new camera and codec?
Mac Pro, 10.13
I've scoured the internet on this matter. There's no easy fix. And our idea to remux the files bore no fruit. We'll have to wait until Canon and Apple have a developer pow-wow before we'll be able to just drop these files into FCPx.
The only way to use these files on Macintosh at this time is to:
Changing the extension to .mpeg doesn't work. It might trick Adobe products into opening them, but they are stuttered and not rendered correctly.
As far as what to do with them once in FCPx, if your output was cLog, don't use any camera LUTs. None of them work including, ironically, the ones Canon provides on the support page for this camera. You'll have to grade the straight cLog footage directly, which isn't so bad. This camera, cLOG and h265 put out wonderfully clean waveforms. After you get a basic grade, you can apply style LUTs using the FCPx LUT effect. Just keep in mind that you want to use the mix slider and keep it below 50% for most LUTs.
As I mentioned in a prior post, this camera is going to be quite popular with the ENG market, which is huge. I imagine Apple will need to address this sooner rather than later. Especially given that the only way to open these files is to use a competing NLE.
I've scoured the internet on this matter. There's no easy fix. And our idea to remux the files bore no fruit. We'll have to wait until Canon and Apple have a developer pow-wow before we'll be able to just drop these files into FCPx.
The only way to use these files on Macintosh at this time is to:
Changing the extension to .mpeg doesn't work. It might trick Adobe products into opening them, but they are stuttered and not rendered correctly.
As far as what to do with them once in FCPx, if your output was cLog, don't use any camera LUTs. None of them work including, ironically, the ones Canon provides on the support page for this camera. You'll have to grade the straight cLog footage directly, which isn't so bad. This camera, cLOG and h265 put out wonderfully clean waveforms. After you get a basic grade, you can apply style LUTs using the FCPx LUT effect. Just keep in mind that you want to use the mix slider and keep it below 50% for most LUTs.
As I mentioned in a prior post, this camera is going to be quite popular with the ENG market, which is huge. I imagine Apple will need to address this sooner rather than later. Especially given that the only way to open these files is to use a competing NLE.
When I import, only audio comes in. Its a .MXF file from my Canon XF705. I believe its considered Canon XF MXF. I don't know what "full specs" you're looking for, but file type is Material eXchange Format and the codec says Linear PCM. I don't know what the codec means to be honest.
Each clip has a .XML file attached to it and a .THM as well that are greyed out because they're just sidecar files.
OS: 10.14.3
FCP: 10.4.5
You might want to check with Canon. In the past they’re provided plugin utilities for their MXF media. The camera isn’t on the FCP supported list. If and when it might be body here can tell you.
The format framework, resolution, and frame rate are always good to know as they can effect application support
The encoding format is h.265, which Apple completely supports. The problem seems to be that Canon is putting this into an MXF wrapper, confusing the utilities, we imagine. We're working on writing a remuxer that will simply rewrap the file into a proper .mov file without re-encoding which MacOS should be able to use properly. Even if we get this to work, it's not an ideal solution. I hope Apple jumps on this as the XF705 is the replacement for the XF300, a work horse in the ENG world. This new camera is so popular, they are on backorder everywhere. Expect a deluge of inquiries like KWigger's. As of now, the only solution (which I have yet to confirm at a rather large cost) is to purchase the full version of DaVinci Studio and then import the Canon files and render them back out as ProRes. Developers can find sample footage of this format at the link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uam3s1bvralba07/AADfc7RvwmhEA-rLJ8pDjz8la?dl=0
I can confirm that Resolve will not open these files -- only the audio seems to work (that goes for VLC, and any other converter on on the internet). That said, when the camera setting is switched to 1080 (from 4K), the files work fine across all programs. It must be the h265 format. Very frustrating.
After more investigation, we have concluded that changing the file extension from .MXF to .MPG will allow Premiere to successfully import the clip (4k included)!! However, this method does not work for Resolve. Good luck everyone!
Resolve will open these files. After downloading the Canon and HVEC utilty software from Canon, I am able to import the native Canon XF705 files and export to any ProRes flavor I want. Still a headache for the workaround.
You wouldn't happen to have a link to the Canon software, would you?
Searching on the Canon website I got this
What happens when you try to import? What are the full specs of the media? What FCP and OS are you using?
Yeah, you went to their global site - go to Canon USA - https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/camcorders/professional/xf705/xf705?subtab=downloads-software
Beautiful. Thanks very much chatrawine.
The free version or the paid version?
Canon XF MXF files in FPCX
