Final Cut Express HD w/ MOV files from Nikon

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Final Cut Express HD w/ MOV files from Nikon

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I have been using a very old version of Final Cut, Final Cut Express HD 3.0, and it has been working very well. I run Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro, and haven't had any problems creating videos, importing, or exporting them. I bought a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera for Christmas, and filmed short clips (I don't believe any is longer than ~30 seconds) of my dog to test the film capabilities of the new camera. The camera didn't come with a cord to connect to the computer, so I used an old Canon cord. The videos were transfered to my Mac without an issue, and play as .MOV files in QuickTime Player, Version 10. However, these files are not being read when I try to import them into Final Cut Express. Instead, I get the error message: "File error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown."

Any thoughts?

Final Cut Express HD-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8), QuickTime Player 10, Nikon D3100

Posted on Dec 30, 2012 5:05 PM

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Answer 1

MartinR

Level 6

18,863 points

Dec 30, 2012 8:34 PM in response to SCFischer

a very old version of Final Cut, Final Cut Express HD 3.0 ... I bought a Nikon D3100 DSLR

The Nikon D3100 records video as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. This is not usable in FCE. You will need to convert the video to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec in order to edit the video in FCE. Try using MPEG Streamclip to convert the video clips from your D3100. Also, before importing the converted clips into FCE, select one of the FCE Easy Setups that matches how you shot your video ... 1920x1080i60 for example ... create a new sequence and then import the converted clips.

That said, I think you may still run into some issues with such an old version of FCE. FCE 3.0 only supported DV and HDV video, neither of which exactly matches what your D3100 can do. You will be better off upgrading to Final Cut Pro X, the current version of Final Cut.

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