still images blur when rendered
 

Dear Folks,

I just returned from a trip and am using Final Cut 4 to assemble some of the
digital still images I took with the new Canon Pro Shot 1 ( nice camera incidentally ). Anyway, when I bring the JPEGS into Final Cut they are clear as
can be, but when I render them a slight blurring is introduced. I've noticed this
in the past with some other projects. Is this just life, or is there a setting that won't introduce this softening to the images when they are rendered. As usual, thanks for the insights on this excellent board. Glen

The images need to be resized in PS. Here is a tutorial on how to do the resizing. The color space should also be changed form sRGB to NTSC 1953.

Thanks Jeff,

It's not a resizing problem as I'm aware of the differences in pixel aspect ratio
and how to resize. Your response did raise another question. If I don't change
the color space in Photoshop to NTSC 1953 ( I never have in the past ), will Final Cut do it for me after I import the still image, or do I have to apply a filter of some sort after the fact? Is the change of color space necessary to comform to broadcast standards. You've peaked my curiousity. Thanks...and thanks for the link to your site; I'll have a good look later this afternoon. Glen

FCP supports both RGB and YUV color space, depending on the codec and hardware used for capture. The Sequence Settings>Video Processing window allows you to set how FCP will render. So, in answer to your question FCP will convert color space if their is a mismatch, but in my opinion PS does a better job.

Thanks Jeff....makes sense..Glen

I saw this problem too, when putting together a montage. Everthing was fine as long as I didn't try to pan or zoom the still, but as soon as I did I got that blurred effect. Forcing a render doesn't help. The good news is that it only looks bad within final cut, the actual output, either as an exported movie or to tape, looks fine.

You could just be seeing the lower resolution of the preview. If you want to pan or zoom follow the tutorial and make sure the images are at least 300ppi.