How to "leave files in place" from Sony FS5

Hey, it doesn't look like anyone recommended doing what I ALWAYS do. Just drag the files from the finder right into the event or keyword collection in FCPX. When you do this, the import settings in FCP X prefs take over, so make sure you have "leave in place" set there. When doing it this way, it doesn't get confused by camera card structure and whether it can import or leave in place. I never have understood why people want to go through that whole import dialog, unless of course they're trying to import pieces of clips.

That said, if XAVC is like DVCProHD (P2) then it just needs to be rewrapped. Like others have said, you can dictate WHERE it gets placed. Doesn't have to be IN the library. You could put it right back in the same folder it came from possibly. If you're on iMac, I wouldn't bother converting to ProRes/transcoding. You'll get limited results if any. With the accelerated h264 decoding of the i7 you pretty much get the same performance as ProRes. You're just trading decoding for big data rates. One taxes the processor, the other throughput. You can always highlight the clip in the event and right click and transcode to ProRes later. Why transcode everything up front? If something is a format that requires rewrapping, then it's already considered optimized and that option won't be available.

First of all, with XAVC you don't have the option of leaving files in place. So, there's that.

Also, here's an example of why I always like to get the import window rather than just dragging the footage in and using whatever import settings I used last. I have a media server and on that server in footage from various clients/projects. I normally "leave in place" when I use footage/gfx in a project library so that I can control where those elements reside and how the project is backed up. If, however, I want to grab a shot from somewhere else on the server and make sure it gets included in my current project library, then I "copy to library".

That example doesn't even get into situations where I'm importing unusual footage types and want to "create optimized media" or importing footage using the automatic keyword functioning.

My point is just that in these situations it's good to have the flexibility to adjust how the footage comes in.

Cheers!

---> Jarrod

VidGreg wrote: ...the reason FCPX will not allow you to "Leave In Place" for a camera card or for an "Camera Archive/exact card copy" is that most people erase the cards to reuse at next photo shoot. FCPX sees Archives/copies as a camera card and doesn't want you to lose your edits by not having the media/clips in permanent storage. You must "Import" the media...

I have heard that many times but I'm not 100% sure that's the main reason. E.g, I can make an exact card copy to disk from various non-AVCHD cameras which also have folder trees, yet for those FCPX allows "leave files in place" on import.

It may be the nature of AVCHD and some XAVC files they are (maybe potentially) fragmented, split, require metadata integration, or otherwise not suitable for editing until re-wrapped.

I just tested importing a 15GB AVCHD bundle to FCPX, and even though it didn't allow "leave files in place", the import was faster than Premiere Pro CC 2015.1 on the same machine -- about 1:45 vs 2:15, including conform time on Premiere and waveform generation on FCPX.

So even though Premiere supposedly allows "leave files in place", it apparently is doing something like FCPX behind the scenes, just not as fast. This might imply there is something fundamental about AVCHD and XAVC which disallows leave files in place, not just a data safety issue.

Repeating what I was told by an actual Apple FCPX person.

Hi Liz
Lots of info here, and some confusion about type of cards, formats, can you or can you not "Leave In Place". Keeping it simple is sometimes a Bear.
So here is my take for your specific situation, then others can chime in and add all their takes and say "i'm full of it".

Currently you make an exact copy of your camera card most likely in Finder.
Then you import into FCPX10.2.2 and check "Optimize Media" which brings the media into FCPX and available in Browser and it creates a ProRes 422 transcode. Importing could be done from your "Copy" of the camera card, or if the card itself is still mounted, FCPX could be importing directly from the card itself, not your created copy. (I prefer to import from card; not copy)

You ask if you can make it so there is only 2 copies, not 3 on your hard drive. So here I'm unclear what 3 copies do you mean?
1) Copy of Card made in Finder 2) FCPX Imported Media 3) ProRes 422 (????)
Or are you talking about the small files that appear in Library that are really only links to where media is stored and change files???

You can if you wanted, not create a "Copy" of your camera card, but instead just import directly into FCPX. This would eliminate the copy of the original card files. Personally, I do not recommend this.
As noted above, the camera itself creates the camera card file structure, the formats and sometimes even folders that FCPX doesn't need.

Apple works with the manufactures of the camera to include the translation tools which are then bundled up and included in FCPX itself as part of the "Supported Cameras" files and often included in ProApps Updates. Without the camera manufacture's providing these support files, FCPX may not be able to natively handle the media. Apple takes the heat for this, but in reality it is mostly on the Manufactures, as they create the file formats inside the camera and must provide the translators to Apple.

So, why create an exact copy of "Card or a Camera Archive" instead of just importing directly in FCPX?
"Lost In Translation"!
It is possible that while being imported, something gets corrupted. Or, the media files themselves might get corrupted later or you might accidentally delete the files, hard drive failure, etc…. Yes creating a copy of the camera card or camera archive creates an extra copy, takes up space, but it provides extra protection.
You should also store this copy on a different drive than the one containing your FCPX imported media.

In another post you state "there's really no way to smoothly link back to my original media in case everything within my library fails."
If you have a copy (via back-ups, clones or copy of camera card) then yes you can "Reimport Media" or replace the missing or corrupted files, if something goes wrong.
So for me, storage is cheap! Give me all the "copies", "back-ups", "clones" I can manage.
Spoken from someone who has been bitten bad in the past

Hope this helps, Greg