Pick The Right ProRes For Canon 7D Video

Posted on by Larry

[ This article was first published in the March, 2011, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]

 

Achim writes (and I cleaned up his English in this question a bit):

I bought a Canon 7D to make some short films with that cam in HD.

 

I edit in Final Cut and have the Canon plug-in for FCP. I can import from the compact-card with this plug-in directly in FCP, but I don’t know which version of ProRes to select in Log and transfer. Which is better for the Canon 7d format?

 

Excuse my bad English, I don’t write often in English.

Larry replies: Compared to my German, your English is excellent! Thanks for writing.

The Canon shoots a video format called “H.264”. Because of the quality of this video, you don’t need to use ProRes HQ.

I recommend you use either ProRes 422 or ProRes 422 LT. LT will have smaller files and, I suspect, you won’t be able to see a difference between the two. If you can’t see a difference, then pick LT. If you can, then pick ProRes 422. Technically, aside from bit rate, the two formats are identical.


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One Response to Pick The Right ProRes For Canon 7D Video

  1. My method of choosing the ‘right’ ProRes format is looking at what the bitrate of the source footage is.
    0-25 mbit/s – ProRes422(LT)
    26-50 mbit/s – ProRes422
    51-100 mbit/s – ProRes422(HQ)
    more than 100 mbit/s or RED footage (only when using ProRes for finished product) or an Alpha Channel is needed – ProRes4444

    The Canon EOS 7D is about 40-45 mbit, so that would mean ProRes422 is the optimal codec.

    I based my method on the information I got from this document http://images.apple.com/support/finalcutpro/docs/Apple-ProRes-White-Paper-July-2009.pdf

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