What’s the best workflow for editing Sony A7R II 4K XAVC S MP4 files on Mac through Final Cut Pro X? Read this post to learn tricks for importing and editing Sony A7R II 4K XAVC S MP4 footage in FCP X.
Sony A7R II is the world’s first to offer in-camera full-frame 4K recording. Like the A7S before it, the A7R II can capture ultra-high-resolution 4K video at 3840 x 2160, however, unlike the “S” model, it can record 4K video internally to the memory card (or via HDMI with an uncompressed 4:2:2 8-bit signal, as well). Indeed, the A7R II captures 4K video using the full width of its full-frame sensor. Initially, this is way more pixels than is needed for 4K resolution video, and so the A7R II condenses the pixel-by-pixel information into a highly-detailed, crisp 4K video resolution.
The A7R II makes use of Sony’s higher bitrate XAVC S file format, which supports 4K bitrates up to 100Mbps. Full HD and 720p video recording is also offered in XAVC S format at 50Mbps (AVCHD and MP4 formats are also available for these resolutions).
For a fast and fluid workflow, people sometimes need to transcode A7R II 4K XAVC S video for editing on Mac. In our previous post, we have talked about how to convert A7R II 4k video for editing in iMovie, and here in this post, you can read a short tutorial on how to convert A7R II 4K XAVC S video to ProRes 422 for use in FCP X smoothly. HD Video Converter for Mac will do the trick to transcode A7R II XAVC S footage to Apple ProRes for editing in FCP X smoothly without quality loss. You can download a demo to have a try.
A quick guide on how to convert Sony A7R II 4K XAVC S MP4 to ProRes for FCP X editing
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Run HD Video Converter for Mac as a professional Sony A7R II XAVC S to ProRes Converter. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load source video to it.
Step 2: Select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format for opening with FCP X
From the ‘Profile’ list, move to ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue, and select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target format. Apple ProRes is the best suited editing codec for FCP X and its former version FCP 7. When loading them into FCP (X), you needn’t wait for a long time for rendering.
Important: If you’ve loaded a number of video clips to do batch conversion, please do remember ticking off ‘Apply to All’ option before you start.
Step 3: Adjust video and audio settings (for advanced users)
If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profiles Settings’ panel to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels. 3D settings are also available.
Step 4: Click ‘Convert’ to start Sony A7R II 4K XAVC S MP4 to ProRes MOV conversion.
Step 5: Click ‘Open Folder’ to get generated ProRes 422 QuickTime files for editing in Final Cut Pro X with optimum performance.
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