Installed this new plug from Canon

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=17662#DownloadDetailAct)

with no probs, using Nathan Beaman's hack to add 550d to list of cameras.

http://www.finalcutuser.com/?p=1829

All good - Log and Transfer in FCP 7.0.1 sees the files fine, I choose ProRes LT to transcode to in Prefs, as per Canon advice:

Canon Digital Learning Center - Introducing EOS Movie Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro (http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=3249)

The import and transcode goes ok - then when I add the clips from Browser to Timeline / Viewer, I get black, no picture - tried changing alpha settings, no good. The clip's thumbnail in the timeline shows the content, and doublclick loads the clip in Viewer - but it plays only black>

Anyone else got this?

Solved - nearly; I had missed (somehow!) changing clips' Alpha from None to Straight in Browser - that's made clips visible in timeline and viewer - but with orange render bar.

How to make Straight Alpha the default for the transcode?

Fully solved - trashed FCP prefs and default Alpha is None/Ignore, but clips now play fine...

Had no idea about this. Timecode added? Sounds wonderful! Glad it's working for you!