beware Mountain L and Canon FX plug in

I foolishly updated my Macbook Pro Retina to ML, tried to reload the Canon import plugin, which worked perfectly with Lion, and got the message "doesn't work with this version of OSX"

Great. Knowing how long it took Canon to produce the plugin for Lion I'm feeling less than hopeful of a quick solution.

Thanks for that tip.

Knowing Canon's haste with updates that might take a while....

Sheesh....I hear you. Waiting for Canon to update EOS Utility for Lion was a nightmare. This is one reason I have not updated to ML yet.

Can you confirm if EOS utility is working with ML or not? I use the Remote Viewing quite a bit, so I am not going t update until thais is confirmed working.

But, the good news is, this link

pika.dk/?p=406

will take you to a small free program that DOES work with Mountain Lion. I used it before the Canon plugin was released, used it again today and it's exactly the same quality file once you get it in FCPX. There are a couple more steps but it works really well.

(If the link doesn't work for any reason, just google "XFCPX" and you'll find it there.)

I for one am really grateful to the guy who wrote it. Canon make great cameras but sometimes they ned a swift kick up their corporate butt.

Which plug-in are you talking about?
I have ML on all my machines and the XF-Utility works and the import of XF-material within FCPX (simply open an archive in the "Import from Camera" dialogue) works as well.

I've never used any add on or third party app or plugin with Canon cameras and FCP X. Not sure what the fuss is about.

The "fuss" is that tha Canon XF utility that is required to get canon MXF files, for example from a Canon 305 camcorder, into FCPX DOES NOT work with mountain lion. Canon say so on their site and when you ignore that and try to load it into X you get the message that I mentioned. If you think it does, you should write to Canon and tell them they got it wrong...

There was a hint of criticism in a couple of the above replies which I won't rise to but I was simply trying to help other people getting into the position I found myself in. Fortunately I did not put ML on my macpro so can use that for my clients work.

And the other part of the "fuss" is that it took canon over a year to write the simple plug in that is required to get files from a professional canon camcorder into FCPX. People with 100/300 series cameras were highly miffed by that delay and look to be in the same boat.

To be honest, it's my own fault for not checking the Canon site more carefully. Video is now the major part of my work and there is a lesson to learn for me, and hopefully anyone else who reads this.

EDIT: should add that FCPX will import from consumer type camcorders, most if not all, even really old models, without any problems. The problem I raised is with Canon Professional camcorders. I have imported from Sony and Panasonic pro cameras without any problem.

Hmm, October 2012. I can wait.

What are Canon "professional" cameras?

Hmmm...works with my C300.
Wonder why it doesn't with the XF305

XF100/105/300/305 and the new C300 are all approved for full HD content by the BBC and EBU so these are generally referred to as professional cameras.

The first four require the Canon XF utility to load files into FCPX. I'd be surprised if the C300 doesn't also need it, but I'm only guessing on that. I'll be using one in a couple of weeks so I think I better find out!

You could, obviously, call any camera at any level 'professional' if you produce content with it and then exchange that content for money, but nobody I have ever met who works in broadcast would do so in a serious way.

I use the XF-Utility only to copy the content of the cards.
There is a XF-plugin for FCPX which I have installed and I tried it and it works with material from the C300 that was saved via XF-Utility.
I will later try to ingest directly from the camera also.
I can try on another machine later today as well and see, if I am just lucky on this Macbook here.
my version of the plugin is 2-0-0-4-8l.dmg

Panasonic P2 was able to import into FCPX from the beginning 8native support by FCPX), but it is buggy with many clips needing several attempts.

Sony just brought out a XDCam-plug-in after over a year and it is spotty with its support for different flavors of XDCam. So Canon was actually on it realtively fast and I guess if there is an issue with some ML-machines, they will fix it rather fast.

Hi Innlens

this is a genuine question because I want to use this camera soon for some low light broadcast work. And I want to post in FCPX because I like it.

I have just checked the Canon site and the C300 produces XMF files at 50mbs, 4-2-2, like the 100/300 cams and Canon also say you need the XF utility to get them into FCPX. The XF utility is the same version, the exact same utility, for the 300 cams and does not load into mountain lion.

Are you saying you can get C300 files into FCPX on mountain lion? If so, please tell me how. Thanks.

Hi Innlens

You posted just before me so I missed you.

So, rephrasing: I can't get XF Utility into ML. It just says it won't work with this version of the OS.

Could it be something weird with the macbook pro retina?

Hey stewpid,
I just tried it on my Mac Pro as well and everything runs as it did in Lion. No problems here to backup cards via XF-Utility and no problems so far to import C300 footage with "Import from camera" directly from the card right in FCPX.

I have a 30GB ingest from a card running right now and got no errors and I can already edit on the last clip of the bunch just as always.

It could be something with the Retina MB. Did you update all your system-software? Do you have another machine to test this, because maybe there is a small difference between the XF305 and the C300. On Sony´s side they all have slightly different flavors.

It anyway seems not to be a ML problem but something with/on your machine.

P.S: XF-Utility says it is version 1.2.0

Thanks for the reply, Innlens.

I'm puzzled and beginning to wonder if its MBP R problem. I bought the MB last week, loaded software an app at a time, checking all was ok. It was and then did the download of FCPX from the app store, checked out ok, the put ML on. Everything works as it should but when I try to put in XF Util it gives that message and just won't load. Its the latest version 1.3.

I've never had any sort of problem with XF U before - works really well. I also have a Mac Pro with 10.7 on and that's fine. Trouble is, I need to shoot and edit something on location really soon, hence the fuss.

I'm sort of hoping I'm not wasting people's time here so I have started a case with Canon to check what they say about the message I'm getting and whether XF should work on the MBPr with ML. And I'll try Apple support.

I'll report back when I have an answer. Thanks for people's interest.

Okay, update. Spent ages talking with Apple support who were incredibly helpful.

They tried downloading XF Utility and had the same response as me. It simply would not load into ML. I pointed to this forum and the guy I spoke to suggested that the only way he could think it might work with ML is if it was ALREADY ON THE MACHINE. In other words, if the only change was to upgrade lion to ML, with XF already installed. But that was only a guess.

His conclusion was that to ADD XF to ML as a fresh install, which is what I did, won't work.

So, if you're on lion, don't remove XF if you upgrade to ML because there's no way XF will do a fresh install.

I'm still waiting to hear from Canon and will report ASAP.

Their website says, ML support will come in October.

XF100, USA

Don't take this the wrong way, but you shouldn't have upgraded without knowing if your software was going to be compatible. It's always good practice to wait a few dot releases before upgrading and making sure everything is going to work OK in the new OS. Or you could have tested it out on a non-production machine.

Do you have a backup of your system drive before the ML upgrade?

Hi Kyletron2000

I agree! It was literally thoughtless - I didn't think there'd be a problem and there was/is. No doubt about it, I should have checked and it's my fault.

Fortunately, I have a Mac Pro with FCPX and XF utility working ok on lion - which I will NOT upgrade!

And there is that link I posted early in this thread which works well but lacks some of the features of XF that I need. But for a free program it's great.

To cbgier, thanks for that info. Sort of confirms it. Just for the record it says:

Content for OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion will be available in early October 2012. In the meantime, please use OS X v10.7 Lion content as a possible alternative.

Which sort of implies that some bits will work and others wont. XF clearly won't.

Thanks again for all the replies.