Archiving from SD Card

Archiving is a simple procedure and I understand how to do it. At least I thought I did. I shoot on a DSLR and put the SDCard into the prescribed slot on my computer (iMac). FCPX reads it and I import fine. But how do I ‘camera archive’ it? It doesn’t how up as a camera, just as a device. The 'create archive' button is greyed out. Do I really have to import through the camera in order to make a camera archive?
What am I missing?

In the import window you should be able to select the card and hit the "Make Camera Archive" button in the lower left of the window. But if it shows up as a device, you may not be able to do it. What type of camera?

I’m shooting with a Nikon D7000, but putting the SD Card in the slot provided on the iMac. It does show up as a device, not a camera. I am not importing with the SD Card in the camera.
I guess I’m out of luck then, huh?

Take a look at this step by step. At what pont is it not working for you?
www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-create-a...-in-final-cut-pro-x/

The very first step. There is no ‘import from camera’ choice. I am not using the camera to do imports, just the card from the camera. “Create Archive’ at the lower left is greyed out. My SD card shows as a device, not as a camera.
Is there a way to get my card to show up as a camera and not a device.

I got it working be reformatting the SD card to MacOS_Journaled. Odd. Now if only the camera will work with that formatting.

That's a problem with some (maybe a lot or all) of the Nikons. They seem to be missing some piece of metadata on the card that's on the Canons.

You can make anything a archive outside of FCP. Put it in a folder. Or use Disk Utility or Create Sparse Bundle to make a sparse bundle. Or simply ZIP the contents of card.

So there is no advantage to havingFCPX do it? I thought there was.

None really. And a downside, it's locked except for FCP, unless you open the container and dig into it.

Yes, I agree. I would insert the card and copy it thru finder to one or more hard drives so you have the files backed up. Then use FCP to import from one of those locations. No real need to have FCPX make the archive.

Weirdly, all of this works smoothly for me in FCPX, from both Nikon D7000 and D7100. The card shows as a camera, 'previously-imported clip' checks work (and work across cards and camera archives), and so on. So far, FCPX 10.0.9 seems a little better about actually ejecting the card again rather than hanging onto it and insisting I quit the app before ejecting.

I invariably format cards in the camera. I mount them using built-in SD card readers or external USB ones. Behaviour is consistent and as expected.

Sorry. No idea what I'm doing right. :dry: