Still pictures appear out of focus in Final Cut Pro timeline

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Level 1

8 points

Still pictures appear out of focus in Final Cut Pro timeline

I just had a collection of home video tapes transferred to digital and am trying to edit them. I am currently working on a video from a trip to Switzerland that I took in 2004.

I am using Final Cut Pro v12.0 on a Mac Studio running macOS Tahoe 26.2.

The transferred videos look good (for an early 2000’s home video camera), but the issue that I am having is with my still pictures that I want to incorporate into the video.

The pictures are JPEGs, shot with "point and shoot” digital camera. They look fine in Photoshop and in the Preview pane of FCP, but when I insert them into the timeline and play the timeline, they are out of focus.

Please help.

Posted on Jan 30, 2026 8:41 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Ian R. Brown

Level 7

24,290 points

Jan 30, 2026 9:00 AM in response to mjbushnell

I think you will find that once the video is exported the photos will look fine.

To confirm it make a quick new short project with maybe one video clip together with a few photos and export it.

Do they look OK now?

You can also click on the View menu (circled) and make sure Better Performance (arrowed) is selected.

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Answer 2

Jan 30, 2026 9:05 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Ian, I think you meant "Better Quality"...

With "Better Performance", sometimes the display is a bit fuzzy during playback (but ok when paused, and, most importantly, on export).

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Answer 3

Jan 30, 2026 9:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Could be!

I should have suggested trying whichever one was not being used.

As you can see I use Better Performance and occasionally playback in the timeline is fuzzy but the 2 photos I dropped in now to double-check remained crystal clear! 🧐

It's known as Murphy's Law . . . there are other less polite versions.

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