To edit footage shot on an HD camera and saved to a memory card, you will use the Log and Transfer feature of Final Cut Pro. Before transferring any footage, make sure you have properly set your scratch disks. After you have done that, select Log and Transfer from the File menu.

 

This will bring up a dialog box, which should prompt the computer to automatically detect your memory card. Make sure you have the card connected to the computer either via a card reader (the preferable option), or via the USB connection on the camera. On this screen, you can drag clips individually to the Queue, located in the bottom left region of the box. You also have the option now to name your clips, using the Clip Name tool in the bottom right area of the box. In the top right area, you can choose in an out points for the clips if you’d like to more specifically control how much of your clips you are transferring to the hard drive.

This process can take a while if you have shot very high resolution video, so please be patient. Once the transfer process is complete. Your clips will appear in the Browser window in Final Cut Pro, and are ready to be edited. Below is an example. Once you have transferred all your clips, you can edit, or continue with the instructions in the Using Final Cut Pro tutorial.

If you have any problems with loading your HD video into Final Cut Pro, which means the video reads only as a .mts file, you need to go to TUCC to use a codec converter, which is available on the computers there.