Sony has just announced its new flagship 4K camcorder: FDR-AX53, which supports to record at an incredibly high bit-rate of 4K 100Mbps through use of the XAVC S format. As for post shooting, the 4K video content from the camcorder can be played back directly on a compatible 4K television through the supplied HDMI cable, or in super-sampled Full HD when connected to an HD TV. How about working them with Final Cut Pro X?
Import FDR-AX35 XAVC S to FCP X with Sony Plug-in
It is well know that the XAVC S format record by Sony FDR-AX35 is mainly designed to deliver 4K video signals with a resolution of 3840x2160, it is not an the native video editing codec for Final Cut Pro X. To fix the workflow of XAVC S with FCP X, sony has created a special plug-in for Mac which helps to provide support for XAVC S in FCP X allowing viewing and editing capability. However, most people complain that the process to install plug in is very complicated, more worse, the plug-in some times don't even work at all.
Alternative way to ingest XAVC S to FCP X
If you are looking for a fast and fluid workflow of 4K XAVC S with FCP X, the best way is transcoding FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S to Final Cut Pro professional editing codec - Apple Prores 422 codec, a post-production format designed for pristine quality and high-performance Final Cut Pro real-time editing. In addition, if you Mac is very old or not has the capability to handle 4K video, it would be much better for you to compress 4K Prores to 1080p prores to fix video play backs choppy issues.
There is professional solution in hand called Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac, which enables you to directly wrap Sony FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S to FCP X Apple Prores Codec in different file types.
How to choose appropriate Apple Prores format?
If you computer is old or slow, or you just want to do some rough editing, you can select to output "Apple Prores Proxy)(*.mov)"or "Apple Prores (LT)(*.mov)"format to save more space and bandwidth. However, if your computer are powerful enough to handle multicam and high-resolution video and you are going to do many effects editing work with FCP X, you'd better choose to output "Apple Prores 422(*.mov)"or "Apple Prores 422(HQ)(*.mov)"for better performance.
How to to encode and compress FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S to 1080P Prores for FCP X?
Step 1: Import FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S 4K videos.
From "File"drop-down option, select "add Video/Audio"to add source FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S 4K video files to the program.
Step 2: Select output file format.
Click "Format"bar, from its drop-down list, select "Final Cut Pro"> "Apple Prores 422(*.mov)"as your desired output file format.
Step 3: Compress 4K Prores to 1080p.
Open "Profile Settings" window, choose "1920*1080" file resolution from "Size(pix)" drop-down selection to downscale 4K Prores video to 1080p Prores.
Step 4: Convert FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S to Apple Prores format.
Go back to the main interface and press the "Convert"icon on the right-bottom to start Sony FDR-AX35 4K XAVC S to Final Cut Pro X 1080P Apple Prores process.
When the conversion is done, you can easily import the converted video to FCP X for furthering professional editing.
