DSLR Editing - No Transcode

Does anyone have any experience editing DSLR footage without transcoding?

I'm using an older MacBookPro (late 2008) with 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8GB of RAM.

I'd like to take out the transcoding process and just work with the footage, but I'm usually doing Color Correction on each one (DSLRs shot on Technicolor's Cinestyle so Basic CC on each clip) and usually a vignette, sharpen, and the occasional other filter. I've heard that once you start putting filters and effects on that it hurts it not being transcoding.

I've done a few tests, but never got anything consistent to base starting a full-blown project without transcoding. I'm hoping some of you all have tried pushing the limits of this.

I suppose it might hurt performance. But surely not quality. I want to go without transcoding, too.

P.S.: Footage from my Canon 60D imports without transcoding, no problems at all.

DSLR footage is H.264, Long-GOP, meaning is very highly compressed, very tiny file size.

The two draw backs are you need enough hardware to play them back efficiently. Long-GOP means the CPU/GPU must read the information do the entire Group Of Pictures (8-12 frames) each time it must reproduce 1 frame for playback. Only the 1st frame of the GOP has 100% of the data needed for playback. The others only have partial data for themselves. Also makes exporting take MUCH longer than optimized PorRes footage would take.

Second, because of the very high compression scheme, they don't hold quality well with repeated transcoding in the Long-GOP format, or to lots of compositing, coloring, etc.

Good news is that FCPX still renders your H.264 footage as ProRes when you import ir natively.

If you're hard up for drive space, and on limited hardware power, import native H.264 and also make Proxy files, too. Edit with proxies for better performance, switch to original files for output.

The Canon 60D makes long GOPs, yes (M1, N12), but uses a very high bitrate of 44.7 Mbps.

Although the material seems to edit fine (for me at least), it's not a good camera to film a toddler.

Anaximandus wrote: ...it's not a good camera to film a toddler.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!! :lol: