Quick question about 2 cameras in FCP
 

I'm going to be editing many many hours of footage from two cameras.

I'd like to put both of the videos in the time line, sync them up, and then have an easy way (such as a keystroke) to switch back and forth between cameras.

Is there a way to do this in FCP? I'm trying to decide which editor to get.

Yes. THis has been in FCP for years. After you sync them (and there are various tools to help you do that) you create a "multiclip" from your various tracks. Then you play it and you see thumbnails of each clip and the audio track of the one you want. Then you pick the one you want as you watch/listen. It's like producing a live event only you can stop go back etc...

Here's an illustrative article on it:
The Essentials of Multicam Editing in Final Cut Pro

FCP features multi camera editing. It allows you to see both cameras at the same time & to cut between them as they play.

There's more information about this in the FCP manual, maybe you could download if from the support section of apple.com.

John the ONLY thing you have to make sure with FCP and multiclips, is that the footage from both cameras has the same frame rate and encoding to it.
In other words if both clips are HDV then it will work fine. But if one is DV and the other HDV, then FCP won;t let you create a multiclip.

Even if they are not the same rate you can of course drag them on to the time line manually and sync them manually (as is often required anyway - even with multi-clip unless the cameras were actually frame accurate).

Double Click on the top clip in the timeline then in the viewer (normally the left window!) go to the motion tab and change the size to 50%. In the canvas window (normally the right window) make sure that "Image & Wireframe" is enabled from the right drop menu at the top of the window. Now click and drag the clip (in the canvas window) and drag it to one side.

Repeat the above on the bottom clip but drag it to the other side. Now you can see both clips running side by side at the same time - this makes it a LOT easier to sync them using specific events.

When you want to edit from one to the other simply put a cut on BOTH video tracks and right click on the clip you 'don't want - then uncheck the "Clip Enable" option in the popup menu.

Tip # 1: Once you are done simply select ALL the footage, right click and then choose "Remove Attributes" from the popup menu. Normally the "Basic Motion" option will be auto checked - but if not check it and click OK. This will resize all footage back to full size and correctly aligned. The enabled clips will show through and the disabled clips will not.

Tip #2 : If you have multiple clips that you need to resize, simple right click on ONE that has ALREADY been resized and choose "Copy". Now select ALL the clips you want to resize, right click and choose "Paste Attributes" and select "Basic Motion". All highlighted clips will now be resized and repositioned to the same place as the original (copied) clip without overwriting the video itself.

Tip #3 : If you need to move a clip (or all clips on that track) by just a frame or two (or however many you need) in order to sync them properly select (highlight) the clip(s) and type either a '+' or a '-' followed by the number of frames to move forward (+) or backwards (-) on the timeline and hit enter.

I have two of the same camera with the same settings, so that shouldn't be an issue.

I'm just trying to decide between FCP and Adobe Premiere. I've never used FCP; I've used Premiere extensively and hate it.

While many of the concepts are the same, learning FCP will not be an overnight project. For $25 subscribe to Lynda.com for a month and watch the tutorials - that will get you up and running the quickest.

How hard could it be? It's from Apple, after all...

I find most of FCP intuitive. If you know premier the learning curve won't be bad at all. It's really about setting up your workflow and figuring out the buttons. Basic editing is cake. I came from the audio world as an expert on pro tools and digital performer and was editing on fcp after a couple of days of reading the manuals. (back on version 4 when they sent you ten pounds if paper!)
On the flip side, Lynda is awesome and I picked up After Effects by going through their whole series on it. If you spent one night on FCP instruction at Lynda.com, you'd have it down enough to take a gig on it.

Over in the Adobe forum, they're saying that Premiere is better than FCP for multi-cam...

Well, to be fair, I was the only one who said that, and I noted that there are a variety of opinions on this. And I didn't say it was better, only that it was easier for me. But even if that were the consensus of opinion over there, you'd expect that there, just as you'd expect the opposite here.

The general legend about these two programs is that they were originally "written" by the same guy or team, so they work very similarly. I just found FCP a little difficult, coming from the PC side. I was used to the way Premiere did things and was a little flummoxed by how FCP Thinks Different. Specifically, I found the method of creating and syncing Multiclips a little ungainly compared to what I was used to in simply syncing the clips on the timeline in PPro. But basically the process is the same.

Sorry to venture over to this side of the tracks... just didn't anyone to think there was any unjustified FCP bashing going on elsewhere.

Well, geez, now I'm even more confused about which one to get... xD

Especially since my content is in AVCHD.

It shouldn't matter which one you get - they can both get the job done.

What you will hear is personal preferences. If you have / like one of them use it. If you don't like it and have cash spare to spend on the alternative then that's an option too.

This is one of those (many) cases where there is not a simple right or wrong answer. If you choose FCP and can't figure something out then this is the place (or at least one of the places) to come to ask for help. People are usually pretty obliging. If you want help on Adobe then there is similar help around :)

Good luck :)

Coming from the FCP side I found the Premier way of working with multi-cam a little difficult! So it's all a matter of experience with a platform and probably where you get started.

However you do it, to get the optimal performance out of your computer with switching in multi-cam you should consider transcoding your files from AVCHD to a frame-based codec. While the files will be about 3 times larger than the camera originals, the processing load on your computer will be reduced. This will make for a smoother editing experience especially if you decide to apply filters.

I spoke with a Final Cut expert at Apple, and he said it's more like 18-25 times the size of the camera original. From doing some calculations with the bitrate, this seems about right, as about 3/4 TB of AVCHD files would be about 8TB of ProRes files (which I don't have space for).

I'm basically trying to figure out whether Final Cut or Premiere has a better workflow for pumping out many hours of edited video (at least 20 DVD's worth). I'm also hoping I can edit a 2-hour video in about 3 hours.