Image quality too dark in FCP

The most common cause of this is not taking a proper monitor along on shoots. You cannot trust an lcd screen on a camera to tell you what you're actually getting.

As most people here will tell you, your screen is not a good representation of the end result. My Computer monitor generally looks too dark too, but looks fine on TV screen.

Also, I prefer to use the 3-way color corrector instead of brightness contrast to adjust dark and white levels.

Plus to get an idea if your footage is too dark, use the scopes in FCP.

Here is a tutorial for using them.

http://podcasts.creativecow.net/final-cut-studio-podcast/vasst-rich-color-correc tion-the

http://podcasts.creativecow.net/final-cut-studio-podcast/vasst-rich-the-vector-s cope

Then I suggest you learn the quirks of your camera.

There's a reason people shoot with a crew.

But make sure to use the video scopes to see where your black and white levels are! It is a better representation of what you actually see on your screen.

just add one thing, check the ND filter. There is no indication on the LCD if it is on or off. I own this camera and it has sometimes tricked me.

I'd like to step in here... i've encountered discrepancies with the 'canvas' viewer window showing a perfectly exposed image to be 'darker' (even though the scopes show it to be properly exposed)

I run a film course... and I've seen this on a number of FCP/computer set ups via my students... MacPro's iMacs and laptops. Yet, the same file opened up in QuickTime 7 looks perfect... but when viewed via the canvas looks much darker. +(note: it's not concerned with screen brightness)+

I've never been able to understand why it does this...., it's especially frustrating as it's inconsistent..., if anyone can shed any light on this (pardon the pun), I'd be most grateful.

Johnny

Take a look at this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2768438&tstart=60