Came upon issues importing and editing Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R movies on Mac iMovie, FCE, or FCP X? Convert them first. This post displays the detailed steps required to convert EOS 5DS/5DS R video to a Mac friendly format for editing in iMovie, FCE, and FCP X with lossless quality.
Canon has added to its EOS 5D lineup with the launch of two 50MP cameras, the EOS 5DS and the EOS 5DS R. The only difference between the models is that the ‘S’ has an optical low-pass filter, while the ‘S R’ has a self-canceling filter (the same relationship as Nikon’s D800 and D800E models shared). Both cameras are high-resolution full frame models, primarily aimed at stills photographers. Also, you can use them to shoot movies as almost DSLRs do.
For a fast and fluid EOS 5DS/5DS R video editing workflow on Mac, you might need to transcode EOS 5DS/5DS R videos to AIC for iMovie/FCE and convert EOS 5DS/5DS R movies to ProRes for FCP X. This requires third party converter app like HD Video Converter for Mac. As a professional Mac converter program, this app can transcode AVCHD, MTS, M2TS, M2T, MXF, MOV, MKV, VOB, MPG, AVI files and more to any formats you need, and produces Apple ProRes/DVCPRO/HDV/Avid DNxHD/AIC codec encoded video files for editing use.
Download a trial of HD Video Converter for Mac
How to convert Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R movies for iMovie, FCE, and FCP X editing?
The steps:
Step 1: Open up HD Video Converter for Mac as a EOS 5DS/5DS R Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load your source media.
Step 2: Select output format for your editing program
To convert Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R movies to AIC MOV for iMovie/FCE, from ‘Profile’ list, choose ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)’ as output format under ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column.
Note that the AIC codec is also accepted by Final Cut Pro (HD 4.5 through 5), but rarely used in Final Cut Pro as of Version 6 since it now uses the ProRes codecs instead of the Apple Intermediate Codec.
To transcode Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R movies to ProRes MOV for FCPX, you need to select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Final Cut Pro’ column. The ProRes codec is suitable for editing in FCP X and its former version FCP 6 and FCP 7.
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: Custom video and audio settings (optional)
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: Begin Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R movies to MOV Conversion on Mac
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. Once the conversion process is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated AIC MOV files or ProRes MOV files for editing in iMovie, Final Cut Express or FCP 7/6/X with optimum performance.
Tips:
If you don’t want to wait for the entire conversion process, you can tick off ‘Showdown computer when conversion completed’ and go away to do other things.
Related posts
Convert M2V to MOV for editing on Mac iMovie, FCE & FCP (X)
AVCHD to Sony Movie Studio: convert MTS raw video to MPEG-2
Import Canon Vixia R11 footage to Mac iMovie, FCE, FCP (X)
Convert Sony handycam .MTS files to MP4 on Windows and Mac
Transfer Nikon D750 MOV footage to Mac iMovie, FCE, and FCP X