If you want toget Canon EOS 5D Mark 3 1080p H.264 MOV clips to be acknowledged as readable files by iMovie, FCE, Avid and FCP without reducing original video quality, you are in the right place. This post displays how to do it in details.
Firstly, see a user question
“Hi, all, I have just bought a Canon 5D Mark III DSLR, which records footage in MOV format. I try to edit these 5D Mark III H.264 video files with iMovie 11 on my Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, but it doesn’t work smoothly. The recorded file is 1080@30fps. In my understanding, the Canon 5D Mark 3 should be capable with iMovie, because it is on iMovie ’11 Supported Cameras list. I asked Apple Support for help, they suggest me to input in 960 x 540 resolution, but this really seems to reduce significantly the resolution achievable by the 5D Mark III. I’m unhappy. It seems so hard to edit my 5D Mark 3 files with original video quality in iMovie 11. Can you or anyone else suggest how I can get these 1080p MOV clips to be acknowledged as workable files by iMovie, without reducing original video quality?”
Our answer
Like AVCHD, H.264 is highly compressed format that is good for capture and delivery, but not for editing. To be able to stay on 1920×1080 and work smoothly in iMovie, we would suggest converting EOS 5D Mark 3 1080p MOV to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). You can do it using third party tool called Video Converter for Mac. If you meet the same problem when editing Canon 5D Mark III h.264 MOV in FCE, FCP (X), and Avid systems, you can also use this Mac format converter program to transcode 5D Mark III video files to AIC for FCE, convert 5D Mark III h.264 videos to Apple ProRes for FCP version 6, 7 and FCP X, as well as encode 5D Mark III MOV to DNxHD for Avid Media Composer.
Download a free trial of Canon 5D Mark III Converter for Mac
Import EOS 5D Mark III 1080p MOV to iMovie, FCE, Avid and FCP (X)
To be able to import Canon EOS 5D Mark III 1080p MOV to iMovie, FCE, Avid and FCP (X), you will need to convert 5D Mark III video files to your editing program readable formats. For instance, you will need to convert 5D Mark III H.264 to AIC for using in iMovie and FCE, transcode 5D Mark III MOV to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro and encode 5D Mark III 1080p files to DNxHD for Avid systems. To do format conversion using HD Video Converter for Mac, follow these steps:
Step 1: Start up Video Converter for Mac as a Mac Canon 5D Mark III video Converter. Once the main interface pops up, click ‘Add File’ button to import H.264 MOV shootings captured by a Canon DSLR. You can load directly from 5D Mark 3 camera or from a card reader, or from a folder on your HDD that contains your media data.
Step 2: Select output format for iMovie, FCE, Avid and FCP
In order to edit Canon 5D Mark III H.264 MOV files in iMovie and FCE, from the Format bar, choose ‘Apple InterMediateCodec (AIC) (*.mov) as output format from ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ catalogue.
For the purpose of importing and editing Canon 5D Mark III H.264 MOV video files in Avid, from the Format bar, choose ‘Avid DNxHD(*.mov)’ as output format from ‘Avid Media Composer’ column.
To be able to use Canon 5D Mark III footage in FCP 7/6 or FCP X, from the Format bar, choose ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output format from ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue.
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 (for advanced user)
If you are an advanced user and want to adjust video and audio settings like bit rate, frame rate, etc. in your own way, you can click ‘Setting’ button and go to ‘Profile Settings’ panel to do so, if not, simply skip this step.
Important:
To stay on 1920×1080 resolution, please set video size at 1920×1080.
Step 4: When ready, click the ‘Convert’ button to start converting Canon 5D Mark III MOV footage for using within iMovie 8’/9/11, FCE, Avid and FCP (X).
Tips: You can tick off ‘Showdown computer when conversion completed’ checkbox, and go away to do other things instead of waiting around in front of the computer for the entire conversion process.
Step 5: When the conversion finished, click ‘Open Folder’ button to find the generated MOV QuickTime files for using in iMovie, FCE, Avid, and FCP.
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