32 replies to this topic

[adamhanlon]

It seems that the long awaited EOS E1 plug in has landed!

It is available for download here

It will allow you to log footage prior to import.

To see the download, it is important to select OSx in the selector on the page!

Adam

[Mary Lynn]

Canon has just released its new EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro!

This new plugin allows use of FCP's Log & Transfer function and window to ingest and transcode Canon's proprietary H.264/MPEG4 video footage available on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 7D, and the 1D Mark IV dSLRs.

Click here and select under software!

Will test out and report again soon...

- Mary Lynn

[TheRealDrew]

Canon has just released its new EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro!

This new plugin allows use of FCP's Log & Transfer function and window to ingest and transcode Canon's proprietary H.264/MPEG4 video footage available on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 7D, and the 1D Mark IV dSLRs.

Click here and select under software!

Will test out and report again soon...

- Mary Lynn

Oh we already knew about this WP Thread, it is old news already

(Please don't hit me next week. )

[Mary Lynn]

I promise, Drew!

Just saw the first thread myself--the downside of trying to post from an iPhone with what's left of my vision...

Hopefully the moderators can move the thread into the Video>Editing section and consolidate--unless there's a sense that this is more of a general interest announcement.

Meanwhile, have learned that the plugin seems to work great, with the caveat that it is necessary to keep all the thumbnails (the .THM files) in the DCIM folder, otherwise the clip missing the thumbnail file won't show up in the Log & Transfer window. But unlike working with the gnarly file structures of DVCPRO HD on P2 cards, or AVCHD on the tiny Sony and Canon camcorders, the Log & Transfer function seems to continue to work with the remaining clips when an actual clip (.MOV file) has been removed (at least it continues to work for all the remaining MOV clips in the DCIM folder).

So, maintaining the file structure of the DCIM file is important to be able to access all the clips using the Log & Transfer function with this plugin.

Shall I move this over to The Galley: General Chat section, moderators?? Can you consolidate us??

- Mary Lynn

[echeng]

Posts merged and left in the correct forum. Thanks, Mary Lynn and Adam!

[Drew]

The plug-in still has the crappy issue of the requirement to Log and Transfer only from the card, due to metadata requirements. This means transcoding is dependent on the speed of the card, which is never fast enough. Once way to beat the system is to copy the card to the fast drive volume as an .img file. This will preserve the data needed for L&T while speeding up the process of transcoding.
This issue has been raised with all manufacturers but they don't seem to think this is an issue. This is the problem when left and right hand don't talk. The developers of the system probably never talked to the NLE which will be used to cut the files.

[newmediasoup]

Seems pretty fast to me so far! This is gonna be great, as my previous workflow was to transcode to PRORES using Compressor.

Looks like you can choose a fair amount of different transcode options in the preferences.

I'm not sure about the .dmg requirement. It appears that the workflow works just like my P2 cards on another camera.
I'm using this plugin with Firmware 2.0.4 (the second update from the last couple days!)

If I want to copy the complete contents of the 5DmkII Compact Flash to a Firewire drive, I simply copy both folders from the CF card (keeping the .thm files and everything). I name a folder on my drive "MyFOOTAGE_TheDate_ETC" and then copy everything from the card into my folder.

In the new Importer Window from Log and Capture, I simply click the first button at the top left of the importer that says "Add Folder", browse to my Firewire drive/MyFolder and bamm! ...good-to-go. Works just like if the compact flash card was mounted to the computer.

On first glance, I think this plugin is going to really help my workflow! I'm super excited to see this!
If you copy the complete contents off the card, then you know you'll have all of your clips, vs. editing directly from the mounted CF card. (There are pros and cons to this, like if you want to make sure you've got all of your footage and can back it up. Or on the flipside, if you just want to do a quick couple of hacked together clips, it's going to be much faster to edit directly from the CF Card, and make a few in and outs, get your money shots, and cut the video for Youtube, facebook, etc. and be done with your quick movie.)


Cheers,

Joel
Newmediasoup, LLC

[wagsy]

Gee you FCP guys are abit behind.
Editing raw 7D clips on my $1800 AUD PC laptop here right now.
Load up the result real soon.

[Ferg42]

Thanks for pointing this out Adam. Looking forward to giving it a go......Although as a new convert to macs, I'm going to have to work out how to use FCP too!

[Drew]

Seems pretty fast to me so far! This is gonna be great, as my previous workflow was to transcode to PRORES using Compressor.

You should've switched to MPEG Streamclip, which was loads faster than Compressor. I'll probably do a test between the new plug-in and MPEG Streamclip for speed. I like that it uses the meta data to do timecode but using the CF card name as the reel means I have to label all my cards in chronological order.

If I want to copy the complete contents of the 5DmkII Compact Flash to a Firewire drive, I simply copy both folders from the CF card (keeping the .thm files and everything). I name a folder on my drive "MyFOOTAGE_TheDate_ETC" and then copy everything from the card into my folder.

Sure that works but I want to separate my stills from .mov files for storage. My cataloging software doesn't like having RAW and .mov files in the same folder.

(There are pros and cons to this, like if you want to make sure you've got all of your footage and can back it up. Or on the flipside, if you just want to do a quick couple of hacked together clips, it's going to be much faster to edit directly from the CF Card, and make a few in and outs, get your money shots, and cut the video for Youtube, facebook, etc. and be done with your quick movie.)

I would never recommend editing from the card at any time. If the card fails, you will lose the clips for good or pay for SSD recovery( which isn't even a real industry like HDD recovery yet. Always backup first before editing unless the clips aren't important.

Gee you FCP guys are abit behind.
Editing raw 7D clips on my $1800 AUD PC laptop here right now.
Load up the result real soon.

Perhaps your wondrous laptop can do layering/efx/color correction in native form in full res real time play back , but even Grass Valley recommends transcoding to Canopus HQ for a reason, ease of workflow down the chain on any machine. In fact, every platform and NLE recommends this for a smoother workflow.
FCP can also play H.264 .mov files in RT, point is it bogs down once you add filters for efx etc, much like when I tested Edius 5.12 last year for the same thing and it bogged down when I added more than one filter. I guess only the Wags machines have that magic Edius touch eh?
I will definitely say that Final Cut Studio is overkill for the casual hobbyist who wants a bone dry NLE for basic edits. Edius 5 is a good small package NLE for those who don't need the frills of 444 color grading and compositing in higher resolution. For newsrooms etc, Edius is a better package.

[TheRealDrew]

Perhaps your wondrous laptop can do layering/efx/color correction in native form in full res real time play back

Of course it does, it also brews the morning coffee, cleans your house and washes the car. And that is even without the newest Service Pack

[newmediasoup]

The plug-in still has the crappy issue of the requirement to Log and Transfer only from the card, due to metadata requirements.

Hey Drew, What did you mean by the above? Maybe I'm missing something. It appears possible to import from folders on your hard drive, but are you referring to something else with metadata that doesn't come in if you don't import directly from the CF Card?

Thanks,

Joel
Newmediasoup, LLC

[echeng]

The plug-in still has the crappy issue of the requirement to Log and Transfer only from the card, due to metadata requirements. This means transcoding is dependent on the speed of the card, which is never fast enough. Once way to beat the system is to copy the card to the fast drive volume as an .img file. This will preserve the data needed for L&T while speeding up the process of transcoding.
This issue has been raised with all manufacturers but they don't seem to think this is an issue. This is the problem when left and right hand don't talk. The developers of the system probably never talked to the NLE which will be used to cut the files.

This is a good way to back the card up, anyway. Imaging the entire card into a .img or .iso file makes it so you can mount the volume later to fool FCP into thinking that the original card is mounted (for log & transfer).

[Drew]

The card has a directory structure of folders which Log & Transfer has to have in order to recognize the files. You have duplicated it by loading the folders into a first folder in your drive directory. That why it works with your method. However, backing up with dates or other directories screws this up. Especially if I don't want file directories with names and dates on the main directory of the drive.
Even Canon does not provide for an answer for its cameras. If, for example, you use MCU from Canon to download the .mov and still files separately, then it won't work if you customize names and folder sequence, even if it does copy the .thm files.
XDCAM EX, AVCHD, AVC-I and even P2 cards are similar like that. It's just a lazy way of writing the code to use the .thm files along with the actual media files.
Red is one which does not have this sort of limitation.

[echeng]

I think Drew's response is to Joel...?

[Drew]

Yes I began when you posted and I didn't update. That's the problem with multitasking.
I should add that if you have an 8 core computer, setting up Qmaster to have 6 clusters will speed it up. But MPEG Streamclip is still faster for the same results, even using dual core only.

[Drew]

I've just timed the E1 plug-in vs MPEG StreamClip... the E1 is a lot faster .... than Compressor (even with 6 cores) BUT it's still twice as slow as MPEG Streamclip. The advantages?
1. Timecode and other metadata is input in the L&T menu.
2. Automatically loads into FCP for editing.

Now all that can be done later with MPEG Streamclip's renders. One thing which may be important for those using external microphones is that the plug-in separates R/L channels into mono tracks, whereas MPEG Streamclip just outputs stereo audio.

At 50% time savings, I'd say for many files, MPEG Streamclip is still the choice for ingestion. Too bad as it would've been nice to have all those features with an aptly speedy transcoding. Now it is still a beta so it may improve in later versions. But for now, it's not worth the download.

[echeng]

Interesting, Drew. Timecode is fake for now, anyway, so we might as well just copy the files, use MPG Streamclip for transcoding, and fake timecode later to make it FCP compatible.

[Cp]

Has anyone tried this plugin with the previous version of FCP (6.0.x)?

[gbrandon]

I've just timed the E1 plug-in vs MPEG StreamClip... the E1 is a lot faster .... than Compressor (even with 6 cores) BUT it's still twice as slow as MPEG Streamclip. The advantages?
1. Timecode and other metadata is input in the L&T menu.
2. Automatically loads into FCP for editing.

Now all that can be done later with MPEG Streamclip's renders. One thing which may be important for those using external microphones is that the plug-in separates R/L channels into mono tracks, whereas MPEG Streamclip just outputs stereo audio.

At 50% time savings, I'd say for many files, MPEG Streamclip is still the choice for ingestion. Too bad as it would've been nice to have all those features with an aptly speedy transcoding. Now it is still a beta so it may improve in later versions. But for now, it's not worth the download.

IMO, the only thing mpeg streamclip has going for it is that its free. With the 5d2, using pro res give you the best quality when you re-wrap. Previously, I always used Cineform's Neo-HD, but after seeing the side by side comparisons of 5dII footage from Streamclip, Neo-HD and Pro-res, the pro res won hands down.
Trust me, I tried my best to believe my $500 investment of Neo-HD was better than pro-res, but it was not to be.

Im not sure why people are so caught up in the speed game anyway. We spend all this money for the best quality of video, yet we compromise quality for speed in editing or transferring? Doesent make sense to me.

If you really are that concerned about speed, I've found the best increase ive found was to switch from usb2 to a firewire 800 card reader, and the next best thing was to buy fast cf cards.

The 2 cf cards i shoot to most are my Sandisk Extreme III 32GB/sec (60MB/sec) and my Sandisk 32gb Extreme Pro (90MB/s). Was it worth it to spend $400 for my sandisk card over my $200 Sandisk Extreme III just for the transfer speed? To me, hell no, but to some it may be.

In the end, you still have to wait for that sucker to render, so whats the problem waiting a few more minutes for your Log & Transfer?

Lastly, I think the majority of people would benefit from changing the E-1 prefrences from 4.4.4. to 4.2.2. All your doing with the 4.4.4. is wasting allot of hard drive space. (at least with the 5d2 footage).

Edited by gbrandon, 21 March 2010 - 01:15 PM.