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Will Final Cut Pro X fully support Panasonic TM700's 60fps/1080p shooting mode for import?

I own a Panasonic HDC-TM700 and I love it very much. It does show up in Log and Transfer and will properly transfer all of my video captured on it- except for anything recorded on the highest setting the camera has to offer. I personally choose quality over quantity, and for me, disk space is no object, and so I ALWAYS shoot on this highest setting. The only way I have found to import the high-quality footage into Final Cut at this point is to open the camera's file directory through Finder, then drag the .MTS files into Popcorn and have them converted into 60fps, 1080p .MOV files. After they are converted, I drag the converted files into my Final Cut project and at this point I can began editing. HOWEVER, this is extremely undesirable, and I desperately hope they change this in the future. Does anyone know if Final Cut Pro X will include full support for my camera? I saw that it fully supported up to 4K, so I can only assume they could handle my highest setting on my camera. Thanks to anyone who responds!! 🙂

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on May 3, 2011 9:31 PM

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35 replies

May 3, 2011 9:44 PM in response to jdbellis

NO one will know until it comes out. But note that 1080p60 is a non-standard format. Nothing plays that back in the real world. BluRay is 29.97 at 1080. Web...no one does 60fps for the web. Stuff that is 60fps is 720p. The point of shooting 1080o60 is to get nice slow motion...not to play it in that format. There isn't one delivery method that supports that frame rate at that resolution.

Jun 24, 2011 3:12 PM in response to Shane Ross

"There isn't one delivery method that supports that frame rate at that resolution."


There will be. Even James Cameron, for example, is considering shooting "Avatar 2" at 60fps, and the whole movie isn't going to be played back in slow motion.


"The point of shooting 1080 60p is to get nice slow motion..."


...or to capture movement smoothly and accurately.


True, currently most projects shot with 60 fps will have to be converted to a lower frame rate (for example, to post on Vimeo). But this WILL change eventually. We will not be stuck in the old 24 fps (film) and 30 fps (video) paradigm forever, just as with FCP X we will not all be stuck with the same editing methods, no matter how well they have served us, that we've been using for decades.

Jun 24, 2011 3:35 PM in response to ACE001

>Even James Cameron, for example, is considering shooting "Avatar 2" at 60fps, and the whole movie isn't going to be played back in slow motion.


That means that it will play back in a theatre using a projector that costs a few hundred thousand dollars. Do you plan to do the same with your Panasonic HDC-TM700? Wow...ambitious.


>But this WILL change eventually.


HOW eventually? How soon? SMOOTH motion like 60p...is horrible for anything outside sports, news and documentary. Dramatic storytelling...narrative shows? People want 24p. Otherwise they get the soap opera look. EVERYONE (other than James Cameron), wants cameras that shoot 24p. Filmmakers want 24p. People making home indy films want 24p. Want ways to make the thing they shot at 30fps (60i) to look like 24p. because that is what we expect when we watch narrative. That is the look we like. 60fps looks too real. Not right.


Look at the HDTVs that smooth out 24p to look like 60i. It's horrible.


Whatever. Avatar sucked. 60p won't make it better. MORE reason to skip the movie.

Jun 24, 2011 4:31 PM in response to Shane Ross

"Avatar sucked." Well thought-out review that completely missed the point, which wasn't about the film's narrative but about the fact that a major player in Hollywood, someone who has always been known to push technological boundaries, is considering shooting 60p. My point there was that this could help open things up a bit, for everyone.


"60p is horrible for anything outside sports, news and documentary. Dramatic storytelling... narrative shows? People want 24p."


You must know that 60p is only "horrible" because we are USED TO 24p, not because it is inherently horrible. It is technically better, in terms of capturing images.


I am currently shooting a documentary about bees, and have chosen to use 60p because I can capture their movements very well. I have used 30fps and it does not look as good. Perhaps when I make my next dramatic film I will use 24p (because this is what people identify as "dramatic" simply because it's been this way for nearly a century, and likely because this will facilitate an easier transfer to film). But perhaps I will go 60p and if the story is good enough people will watch it, no matter how many frames shoot by every second.


Larry Jordan, a very well-respected person in the video production and training industry, responded personally to my concerns about 1080 60p and possible broadcast problems:


"My recommendation is to shoot 1080p/60. It is the ideal format and can be transcoded to whatever you need."


Hopefully this helps someone to NOT be dissuaded from trying new things, or taking risks, or pushing boundaries, or succumbing to the expectations of a majority.

Jun 24, 2011 6:34 PM in response to oxynox

I purchased ClipWrap to transcode my files to ProRes 422. Many video professionals have said that there is no benefit to using anything other than just straight out 422 for this kind of footage. You can also use Toast to transcode the footage. Once converted to Quicktime files, import into FCP X and you'll be editing pure 1080p 60 footage.


Panasonic is supposed to be releasing a fix for this so that FCP X can transcode the footage, and it is supposed to be out this summer.


I've just done too much research, and have shot enough 1080 60p footage, to know that 1080 60p is very good, even with a sub $1,000 camera. And I don't like getting sarcastic and cocky comments (see above) when I'm simply trying to aid and encourage a fellow human being to pursue their craft.

Jun 24, 2011 8:55 PM in response to oxynox

Honestly.. My opinion, (and I don't mean to say that anyone is wrong) is that many people in the video editing community have initially bad feelings toward actually releasing a film in 60p in instances when the film is a narrative or something dramatic.


My theory is that they just are not used to it because it feels and looks so drastically different from conventional 24p that they assume that it's a bad decision to do 60p altogether, whereas I say, yeah, it'll take some getting used to, consumers as well, but in the end, will we still be filming in 24p five years from now? 10 years from now?


How silly will it sound when we have technology capable of more than double that speed, and the people in charge simply refuse to use it? I mean, when I look at 60p footage, I love it, because you can see the motion like you would in real life.


I mean, part of the whole reason Apple made Final Cut Pro X such a drastically different product from its predecessors, in my opinion, is because this industry needed a little wake-up call to show them that we really need to keep the technology moving! We've been using 24p for ages! Not saying I'm not okay with 24p if that's what you do, but I'm just saying, I think 60p is where things are going, and if you have the capability, why restrict yourself? Just my thoughts on the issue. Reply yours!

Jun 24, 2011 9:41 PM in response to oxynox

"I just downloaded clipwrap and it seems to work quite well. Thanks for the help. Exactly what I was looking for."


You are quite welcome.


Keep in mind, though, that while you have to select the actual .MTS files for Clipwrap to do it's thing, as far as keeping a copy of the raw camera data make sure you copy the ENTIRE contents of the memory card folder, not just the .MTS files. Important metadata is in those other folders. Once FCP X is able to ingest this footage, it won't work without the entire folder hierarchy. So please be careful!

Will Final Cut Pro X fully support Panasonic TM700's 60fps/1080p shooting mode for import?

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