How to Import Nikon D5/D500 4K MOV footage to Final Cut Pro for further editing

Summary: This article aims to show you the best workflow of importing and editing 4K MOV videos from Nikon D5/D500 to Final Cut Pro X/7/6.

The Nikon D500 and full-frame D5 are the first Nikons to offer support 4K UHD capture at 3840 x 2160 at 30p/25p/24p. Both of them has the capacity to record UHD 4K video using the H.264 codec and MOV container video format. As a FCP user, chances are you wanna import Nikon 4K footage into Final Cut Pro for further editing only to encounter similar tricky issues as below:



"Hello, recently I bought the Nikon D5 DSLR and have used it recorded some 4K videos and 1080p MOV videos, the image quality is very excellent. Today I need to import Nikon D5 4K files and 1080p files to FCP 7 and edit the footage with FCP 7, but after I loaded the videos, I find the FCP can't edit Nikon D5 files smoothly, what's the reason? Are Nikon D5 videos not well supported by FCP? Any suggestion is appreciated, thanks!"

In fact, H.264 MOV videos from Nikon D5/D500 beyond the compatibility of FCP, and what's more, until FCP X 10.1, the old version FCP X or Final Cut Pro 6/7 like many editors use 1080p as primary delivery format and will continue to do so for a long time. In view of such factors, to ensure a smooth workflow of importing and editing Nikon D5/D500 4K files in FCP, the recommended suggestion is to compress and convert D5/D500 4K media to Apple ProRes, which ensures the maximum editing efficiency and quality when working with FCP X/7/6. Supposing you are confused about that, this tutorial below aims to take the Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac as example to walk you through the process of encoding Nikon D5/D500 4K recordings to ProRes .mov for FCP editing.

Overall, the Brorsoft Mac program, reputed as the best Mac Nikon 4K H.264 MOV Converter, boasts to transcode all Nikon 4K and 1080p MOV files to Apple ProRes for Final Cut Pro X/7/6, MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere Pro, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer, AIC .mov for iMovie, Final Cut Express and more to satisfy your diverse demands. If you work Nikon MOV footage on Windows, please get Video Converter. So without further ado, let's begin our task.



Guide: How to encode Nikon D5/D500 4k video to ProRes for FCP?

Step 1: Open up Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac as a Nikon 4k Converter for Mac. When its main interface comes up, you can directly drag & drop the files onto the main interface, or you can click the "Add" icon to locate the videos from your local disk. Note that batch conversion is supported, so you can add several files to the converter at one time.



Step 2. Choose ProRes as output format

Click the "Format" bar and select Final Cut Pro> Apple PreRes 422(*.mov) as output format.



Tips: Hit the Settings icon, start to adjust the video and audio parameters, including the Bitrate of Video&Audio, Video Size, Sample Rate, Frame Rate, Audio Channels, etc. For smoothly editing 4K videos in iMoive, you're highly suggested to compress 4K to 1080p. Or you can keep its 4K resolution if you like.



Step 3: Begin Nikon D5/D500 4k UHD video files to ProRes MOV Conversion on Mac

When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. Once the conversion process is complete, you can click ‘Open’ button to get the generated ProRes MOV files for editing in FCP with optimum performance.

Tips: If you don’t want to wait for the entire conversion process, you can tick off ‘shut down computer when conversion completed’ and go away to do other things.

More Articles:

Nikon D5/D500 4K MOV Editing Tips in Premiere Pro

Convert and Import Nikon D5/D500 4K video files to Windows Movie Maker

4K Workflow with Final Cut Pro X/7/6

Import 4K MP4/MOV from DJI Phantom 4 to Edit in iMovie

Summary: Have recorded some stunning 4K footage via DJI Phantom 4? Want to import and edit them in iMovie? Read on this post to get the smooth workflow of DJI Phantom 4 4K MOV/MP4 clips and iMvoie.

DJI Phantom 4 is a slick, feature-packed drone that gives you the ability to capture DCI-spec 4K (4096 x 2160) at 24 or 25 fps and UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at up to 30 fps whether for cinematography or just shooting for fun. However, it records 4K video in MP4 or MOV with MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 codec, which is not a native editing codec for most NLEs including iMovie. So if you try to import and edit DJI Phantom 4 4K footage into iMovie, you're likely to run across various issues: screen freezes, program crashes, no audio, etc. Then there is any fluid workflow of transferring and editing DJI Phantom 4 4K videos in iMovie? Read on to get more hints:

Best 4K video formats and resolution for editing with iMovie on Mac

Resolution: 1080P

Generally the common personal computer doesn’t have the ability to process the Phantom 4 4K video editing work, even if you can import Phantom 4 4K footage into iMovie on Mac. The quality of Phantom 4 4K videos is ultra high definition, so it requires very powerful computer hardware for smoothly editing. In short, for the purpose of better and smoother editing, you're advised to compress 4K to 1080p.

Format: Apple Intermediate Codec

The H.264 codec is not good for video editing as we mentioned above. Even with high computer Configuration with a hard disk array, you will encounter performance issues if your source 4K video is in H.264 codec. AIC is the most compatible format for iMovie.

The best way to convert and downscale DJI Phantom 4 4K videos to iMovie

In conclusion, you need a professional video converter to help you convert the original DJI Phantom 4 4K videos to Apple Intermediate codec and downscale 4K videos to 1080P. Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac is the best one recommended to you. It is a professional tool that can deal with DJI Phantom 4 videos regardless in 4K, 2K or HD to AIC .mov for iMovie editing without quality loss. Plus, other optimal presets like ProRes for FCP, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer , MPEG-2 for Adobe Premiere Pro are provided. Now follow the below guide to convert DJI Phantom 4 4K MP4/MOV for playing and editing in iMovie.

Download the 4K to iMovie converter:

(Note: Click here for OS X 10.5)

Best Way to import DJI Phantom 4 4K files to iMovie natively

Step 1: Load DJI Phantom 4 4K videos

Run DJI Phantom 4 4K to iMovie Converter and load 4K MP4 clips to it by clicking “Add” button. You can also drag and drop the 4K files to the software directly from your Hard drive.



Step 2: Select output format you want

Hit the “Format” bar and select iMovie and Final Cut Express > Apple InterMediate Codec(*.mov) as output format on the drop-down menu.



Tip: You can also click “Settings” to fix the frame rate, bitrate, video size, etc to your needs, that you can play and edit DJI Phantom 4 4K movies in iMoive easily. Generally, 1080p video size is good for iMoive editing. Of course, it can keep original 4K resolution for you if you need.

Step 3: Convert DJI Phantom 4 4K to iMovie

Click the convert button under the preview window; the converter will start encoding DJI Phantom 4 4K clips for iMovie.

After the conversion, click the “Open” button to locate converted files, and then you can load the converted DJI Phantom 4 4K files into iMovie for editing smoothly with the best quality.

More Topics:

Import DJI Phantom 4 4K MOV/MP4 footage to FCP for further editing

Import and Edit 4K footage recorded from DJI Phantom 4 onto Premiere Pro

Get DJI Phantom 3 4K footage work well with Avid Media Composer