FCP Sony FCP7 Plugin - Why not Prores422?
 

I have been importing my 1080p30 footage in to FCP7 and my preferences for the LOG AND TRANSFER is set to Prores422 but, when I check the clip it say the Compressor is 1080p30, not Prores422.

When I drop the clip to a sequence with the compressor setting of the sequence to 1080p30 it doesn't ask me to change the sequence settings to another compressor like Prores422.

Don't use Sony log and transfer but ClipWrap. Drop the M2T files to ClipWrap window - select a destination - select Prores conversion. The conversion is fast and the quality in Proress is amazing.
Hung

Can you give us some more info? 1080p30 is a resolution & frame rate, while ProRes 422 is a codec. There is a chance that Log & Transfer is doing exactly what you want.

One quick thing is to look at the file sizes. There is a HUGE difference between Proress422 & HDV.

One big important question I have for you is: Why do you want to edit in Prores 422?

I love my Z7 & think it creates really amazing images, but I don't deny that it is still a "budget" camera when compared to the field of professional cameras. Thus I think that it is fine for many applications to get by editing in the "budget" HD format, HDV.

I know there are a lot of dedicated editors that will state to their death that no one should ever edit in HDV. But I take the wisdom that the best workflow is the workflow that is best for you. I have cut a bunch in HDV & I have yet to have someone have a problem with it.


-One more thought... I overheard a while ago about some guys talking about keeping the raw footage in HDV, but your sequence in ProRes422. This way you're not loosing any hard drive space by up-converting all of your raw footage to a larger codec, but when you render graphics & such FCP keeps everything in full raster 1920x1080 w/ much less compression.

If you want to stay in an HDV sequence, you can set FCP to render in ProRes422. It's in the Sequence Settings > Render Control Tab (HDV and XDCam only) BTW, I've done lots of successful native HDV editing in FCP. Most goes to SD DVD or to the web.