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How to Transfer Nikon D600 H.264 MOV Files to FCP 7 on Mac


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    Nikon D600 was just released and its refreshing and amazing features attract eyes of many photographers and shutterbugs. The Nikon fans will not be disappointed this time. The D600 adopts the new FX-format CMOS sensor (35.9 x 24.0 mm), together with 24.3 effective megapixels, delievers stable high image quality at a wide ISO sensitivity range from ISO 100 to 6400 (expandable to ISO 50 to 25600 equivalent) utilizing large pixel pitch. Besides, like Nikon's D4 and D800, the D600 incorporates image-processing engine EXPEED 3, which is excellent at color reproduction, gradation processing and image quality at high sensitivity and capable of processing data of 24.3 effective megapixels at high speed. If you are favor of D800's performance but prefer D7000's portability, Nikon D600 is the great choice for you.


    As for the video shooting, Nikon D600 records videos at Full HD 1920*1080 30fps and the files are compressed with the H.264 codec QuickTime format. Due to the coder – decoder it adopts, you may meet importing problem while you want to transfer Nikon D600 H.264 MOV files to FCP 7 for editing/burning your home videos. The following part of the article expalin the reason why you are not able to import H.264 MOV files to FCP 7 and gives the most effective solution to it.


    What causes the importing problem?
    Before giving out the reason, you should firstly understand three important points about a video, which are Codec, Container and Format. Simply speaking, Codec is a piece of software that performs encoding-decoding or compressing-decompressing work for a given audio or video format, Container is where you put your audio and video in differents formats while Format is the actual audio or video playback standard that the codec is able to encode and decode. In this case, the videos shot by Nikon D600 is compressed with H.264 codec in QuickTime format and put in MOV container. For viewing/editing the videos thus encoded, you need the same codec to decode it as was used to encode it. But FCP prefers the ProRes 422 codec, and the difference between the codecs causes the importing, actually the decoding problem, since you can not use the ProRes 422 to decode a H.264 QuickTime file.


    What is the solution to the decoding problem?
    FCP has already provides you a hint on the solution since FCP 6. It is the Log&Transfer plug-in, which is a background converter, which is used to transcode your H.264 QT file to ProRes 422 LT and then your FCP 7 can decodes the converted file with ProRes codec. But due to the limitation of L&T, you will meet the importing problem. Thus, the solution is to convert H.264 to ProRes 422, then FCP 7 can easily decode your shootings from Nikon D600.


    What is the best H.264 to ProRes converter?
    Here recommended the top H.264 to ProRes Converter. Apply it and you can get your H.264 QuickTime files from Canon D600 converted to ProRes 422(*.mov) with lossless quality on your Mac, even the latest Mountain Lion. Besides, you will also be provided with some useful editing functions, such as combining several clips into one for easy importing/editing in Final Cut Pro, trimming videos, deinterlacing 1080i videos, adding text/image/video as watermarks to your original files, replacing audio tracks, adjusting brightness/contast/saturation of the imported files, etc.


    Guide: How to convert H.264 MOV files to ProRes 422 for editing in FCP 7


    Step 1: Free download the top H.264 to ProRes Converter and install it on your Mac. After the installation, please run it and load your H.264 footages direcly from your D600 or from the copied folder on your desktop to the converter.


    Tips:
    1. If you want to combine all the files together for easy importing to Final Cut Pro, please tick the box "Merge into one" on the main interface.
    2. Double click on the selected file and you can have a preview on the viewer.
    3. You can click the Browse button to choose the output destination as you like. After the conversion, you can click the "Open" button to find the converted ProRes MOV files.


    Step 2: Hit the Format box and select one of the Apple ProRes codecs on the dropdown list. You are advised to choose “Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)”or “Apple ProRes 422 HQ (*.mov)” format. Due to the difference in the compresstion standard of H.264 and ProRes 422, the converted files are significantly larger than the original ones. If you prefer smaller file size, please choose “Apple ProRes 422 (LT) (*.mov)” instead.


    prores422-options-fcp-mts.gif


    Tip: If you are puzzled about the five options and are not sure which one to choose, the listed differences between the ProRes codecs may help you.


    a. ProRes 422 (HQ): offers the utmost possible quality for 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 sources and provides target data rate of approximately 220 Mbps and higher quality than Apple ProRes 422;


    b. ProRes 422: provides target data rate of approximately 145 Mbps and higher quality than Apple ProRes 422 (LT);


    c. ProRes 422 (LT): provides roughly 70 percent of the data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (thus, smaller file sizes than Apple ProRes 422) and higher quality than ProRes 422 (Proxy);


    d. ProRes 422 (Proxy): provides roughly 30 percent of the data rate of Apple ProRes 422 and high-quality offline editing at the original frame size, frame rate, and aspect ratio;


    e. ProRes 4444: offers the utmost possible quality for 4:4:4 sources and roughly 50 percent higher than the data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).


    Step 3: Adjust the video and audio parameters, including the Bitrate of Video and Audio, the Codec of Video and Audio, Video Size, Sample Rate, Frame Rate, Audio Channels, etc., by clicking the Settings buttion on the main interface. The screenshot listed below is our recommendation on the settings for you.


    fz150-fcp-settings.gif


    Step 4: Click the arrow button on the main interface to start converting H.264 QuickTime files to Apple ProRes for editing in fcp 7.


    After the H.264 to ProRes conversion is 100% completed, please click run the FCP 7 and click File --> Import --> Files for importing Nikon D600 recordings to FCP 7 for further editing. In addition, the versatile Video Converter can also make your H.264 recordings editable in iMovie, FCE, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Elements, Adobe After Effects, Avid Media Composer, etc. If you are interested, please link to Brorsoft's Video Converter for Mac to get more info.


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