Any tips on using FCPX with footage from a GH3?

You probably do not need that Analysis. If you are not selecting to create optimized or proxy media, there is no transcoding going on, so it is just analysis. I suggest you turn that off and see how things work (you can always analyze later if necessary).

I am more intrigued by the other matter of interlaced vs progressive.

Can you open one of those clips in Quicktime Player, and show us a screenshot of the Movie Inspector there? And another of the Inspector in FCP X?

Could it be that the clips are progressive, but you edited them into an interlaced timeline?

Edit: oh, and you probably don't need transcoding either. FCP X works quite well with AVCHD material

citroenDS wrote:

Thanks for responding, Luis. I just checked again, and it looks like all the imported material has been optimised. I didn't choose to optimise in the import window, but I can see now that I'd already set FCPX preferences to Create Optimised Media - and presumably this over-rides the import window option?

What appears in the import window is by default what you set in the preferences. You can change that -e.g. you can turn off optimizing by unchecking the respective box. My guess is you did not mean to optimize but may have failed to notice that box was checked; also, some people import by dragging directly from the Finder to the browser: in that case FCP X will act according to the preference settings.

If the original footage is native media, and I don't need optimised media, can I remove it safely to save space on the drive? And if so, how?

Select the library in the browser; File->Delete Generated Library Files... and then check the box for optimized media.

Regarding the interlaced issue: what FCP X calls 25i is often called 50i elsewhere. Are you sure the clips were not shot as interlaced by accident?

Can you shoot a short clip with the camera, making absolutely sure it is 25p or 50p, and import that to see how it comes up in FCP X?

citroenDS wrote:

T

Why does FCPX describe 50i as 25i? I checked the GH3 spec and it shows that FHD25p has a frame rate of 50i - which is equally confusing!

Yes, it's confusing. The first a nomenclature decision: indicating frames rather than fields, The second is a common recording technique – recording progressive within an interlaced stream. So with respect to the first, Apple's 25i means 25 fps. With respect to the 50i "frame rate" in your table, it's also 25 fps.

Russ

As Russ said it's nomenclature, actually stupidity in nomenclature. The first two lines of that chart are 50p and 50i. 50i is stupid. Both of these formats do not have a frame rate of 50fps. There is not such thing as 50fps interlaced. 50i is actually 25fps interlaced. These should be written as 50p and 25i. The line you highlighted should be written as 25i, because that's the actually frame rate.

25p in these cameras is not a whole frame of video recorded every 25th of a second. It's a field recorded every 50th of a second and doubled so the 25i material has two identical fields. This gives less resolution and less motion blur than is normally seen in true 25p media. You have the benefit of no interlacing but without the motion smoothness of true interlaced media or the correct motion blur of true 25p media.

From those options in your camera, I would standardize on 50p and not look back.

I hate interlaced, and as Tom said this 25p is "fake", something that is neither true interlaced nor a full frame progressive.