Summary: If you are looking for a way to import and edit Nikon D3300 video files on Mac, you may have interest in this post. It explains how to transcode Nikon D3300 footage to QuickTime movie format for editing in iMovie, FCE and FCP X.
Anyone got D3300 footage to work with FCP X?
“Is anybody using FCP X to edit footage from the Nikon D3300? I recently got a Nikon D3300 and have been having trouble figuring out how to work D3300 MOV files with FCP X without glitches. Someone told me that I need to convert D3300 H.264 .mov files to ProRes or something that will run smoothly in FCP X. Unfortunately, I don’t have any conversion experience on this. Do you have any ideas on it? Appreciate any and all feedback/help. Thanks.”
Yes, it’s true. If you have issues while editing D3300 files in FCP X, you can consider converting D3300 MOV video to ProRes before editing. Nikon D3300 uses H.264 codec to encode footage into a MOV wrapper. The H.264 is a highly compressed format suitable for capture and delivery, but not quite proper for editing use, that’s why people usually need to transcode D3300 MOV files to an intermediate format for working with Mac NLEs like FCP X, iMovie, and FCE.
In the following content, we would like to introduce how to convert D3300 MOV to ProRes for FCP X and how to transcode D3300 MOV to AIC for iMovie/FCE using HD Video Converter for Mac app.
Download a demo of HD Video Converter for Mac
How to encode Nikon D3300 MOV for editing in FCP X, iMovie and FCE?
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Run HD Video Converter for Mac as a professional Nikon D3300 Video Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, click ‘Add File’ to load source video to it.
Step 2: Select output format for FCP X, iMovie and FCE
1) For the purpose of converting D3300 MOV for use in FCP X, from ‘Profile’ list, choose Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Final Cut Pro’ column. The ProRes codec is also workable in the former version FCP 6 and 7.
2) To convert D3300 MOV files for use in iMovie and FCE, from ‘Profile’ list, select ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC)(*.mov)’ as output format under ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ column.
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 Nikon D3300 video conversion.
Step 5: Click ‘Open Folder’ to get generated QuickTime files for using in Final Cut Pro X or iMovie/FCE with optimum performance.
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