FCP7 Editing 4K in smaller resolution and conforming it later.

Yes you can natively edit with h.264 in FCPX. But the nice thing about FCPX you can import your footage and transcode your material to; optimise and proxy (in the background) then you just switch between the different formats with a click with no relinking.

But back to your question I would do a test if you see a difference in transcoding your footage in ProRes and downscaling it... in FCP7 or your transcoding tool of choice.
So your delivery is 1080, do you even need to edit with 4K material (punch in..)? It always good if you ca offered a step less in a workflow.

I would need to punch in / reframe / stabilise occasionally from time to time, but if I decide prior to the project i dont have to...

I will do a test and let you know using both Mpeg Streamclip and Compressor (transcoding and downscaling 4K h 264 to Pro Res 422 1080) and will post if there was any difference.

Thanks!

If you have any other question feel free to and nail a post here.

As AppleGuru mentioned give FCPX a try. There is a 30 day Trial here , download it and add import your footage from your last project and see how it works for you.

Yes it will, plus if you have slower/older hardware, FCPX internally handles proxy media for online/offline editing quick and easy.

BenB wrote: Yes it will, plus if you have slower/older hardware, FCPX internally handles proxy media for online/offline editing quick and easy.

Yes as it was mentioned before. But do test the performance of the application on your current computer.
If we can ask, what hardware are you working on?

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB


But if this project goes through I will upgrade to the 5K iMac...

Following are the requirements to edit 4K with FCP
The following Mac computers are capable of viewing 4K resolution via HDMI from Final Cut Pro X 10.1.
Mac Pro (Late 2013)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013 and later)
The supported 4K resolutions are as follows. Note that not every 4K monitor will support both of these resolutions, and 4096 x 2160 is only supported via HDMI at 24fps.
4096 x 2160
3840 x 2160