Pick The Right ProRes For Canon 7D Video

[ 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.