MP 1,1-5,1 Canon blocking FCPX on 5,1 from high-res Cinema Raw Light

[DFP1989]

Can't quite believe this, but a bunch of testing this evening has confirmed this to be true!

My new-to-me 5,1 arrived this morning, and I've been testing it with both Mojave and Catalina. One of the things I was hoping to try was some editing in FCP X, see how it compares to my 7,1 considering how cheap it was.

Most of my filming is in Canon Cinema Raw Light using either my C200, 1DX III or EOS R5. With the latest version of the CRL plug-in for FCP X installed, it worked great for C200 footage, but 1DX III (5.5K) and EOS R5 (8K) RAW footage would give me an import error.

Reading through the docs on Canon's website more thoroughly finally gave me the clue.

*The following environment is required to be able to handle 5.5K RAW(CRM),5.9K RAW(CRM) clips.
- Mac Pro (2013 or later)
- iMac Pro
- iMac (equipped with AMD GPU and released late 2014 or later)
- MacBook Pro (equipped with AMD GPU and released in early 2015 or later)
*The following environment is required to be able to handle 8K RAW(CRM) clips.
- Mac equipped with AMD GPU with 4GB or greater VRAM

Aside from this notation, everything else regarding compatibility is listed as:

2. Supported OSes
Same as the support conditions of Final Cut Pro X

3. Compatible PCs
Same as the support conditions of Final Cut Pro X

CPU;
Same as the support conditions of Final Cut Pro X

RAM;
Same as the support conditions of Final Cut Pro X

4. Display
Same as the support conditions of Final Cut Pro X

Loading up Opencore with a crude attempt at making my machine appear as a 6,1 all the footage appears and plays no problem.

Much like the big question mark over Apple blocking the 5,1 from Catalina, I'm baffled why Canon would block the 5,1 from editing all variants of Cinema Raw Light footage.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a better stab at getting Opencore working correctly to appear as a 6,1 without messing everything else up, but thought if anyone else was stumped by this, now you know!

 

[krakman]

could be to do with AMD hardware acceleration not being enabled on the 5.1

 

[DFP1989]

Quite possibly, Opencore solves that problem too. Going to have a better go at getting it all working tomorrow.

I guess my post is more to draw attention to why you get an unhelpful error message trying to import CRL from one camera but not another. I now know they have a list of compatible systems, but it wasn’t super obvious at a glance.

 

[THnZone6]

Thanks for posting!

I have the same problem, but I'm not sure it's machine specific because the Canon software will open the 5.6k and/or 8k files. FCPx 10.4.9 dropped today, and I updated thinking that would let me import the 5.9k or 8k files to FCPx. Sadly FCP says that the Canon RAW plugin needs to be updated and is incompatible with the current version of FCPx.

Have you tried opening the 5.9k raw files in Canon Raw Developer? I hope that Canon updates the plugin in a timely manner.

Will you post your results/methodology if you get it to work with Opencore?

 

[DFP1989]

Yep no problem for me in RAW Development either. It’s definitely a software flag based on the Model ID that is limiting the RAW plugin to 4K only.

I too encountered the issue with 10.4.9 not supporting the current latest version of the RAW Plugin (v1.5) on my 7,1. Was lucky to have a backup of 10.4.8 to roll back until 2.0 is released.

Will do, I haven’t tackled it further yet but might give it another try today. I don’t need FCP X working on my 5,1, but would still love to get it working.

 

[THnZone6]

I'm hoping that the update of the RAW plugin will solve the issue >4k issue.

I was foolish enough to let FCP update my libraries, so I'm not sure I can go back to 10.4.8.

Live and learn.

 

[DFP1989]

I'm hoping that the update of the RAW plugin will solve the issue >4k issue.

I was foolish enough to let FCP update my libraries, so I'm not sure I can go back to 10.4.8.

Live and learn.

I don’t expect it will, looking at the release notes the 4K limitation has been there for multiple versions, and I assume it’s a conscious decision.

Yeah that hurts. Apple really need a better solution for this, it’s not the first time updates have futzed everything with no way to go back.


EDIT: from the Canon download site for the RAW Development tool.

A GPU made by AMD (VRAM: 3GB or more) installed on one of the following Mac models.
- iMac Mid2010 or later (excluding 21.5 inch 3.06GHz)
- iMac Pro (2017) or later
- MacBook Pro Early2011 or later (excluding 15.4 inch 2.0/2.2GHz)
- Mac Pro Mid2010 or later
The processing performance should be lower on a computer that has no supporting GPU.
For details, please see the Read_me_first_2_6.pdf that is included in the downloaded file.

 

[THnZone6]

The odd thing is that I can open the 5.9k files in Premiere Pro CC, but the workflow isn't as smooth nor is the playback.

 

[DFP1989]

That's because PP optimisation and performance is garbage haha. Was the primary reason I switched to FCP X three years ago, I couldn't take it any longer.

 

[THnZone6]

Canon updated their FCP X raw plugin this week - still only gets me C400mkIII raw footage, but the new proxy workflow in FCP X is nice for working on a laptop.

Had you gotten the Canon plugin to work using Opencore? And is there a simple way to implement that?

 

[DFP1989]

Canon updated their FCP X raw plugin this week - still only gets me C400mkIII raw footage, but the new proxy workflow in FCP X is nice for working on a laptop.

Had you gotten the Canon plugin to work using Opencore? And is there a simple way to implement that?

I ended up selling the machine.

It did work when I had Opencore set to a different model identifier (like Mac Pro 6,1), but the machine wasn't quite as smooth when I did that, not sure I had it configured quite right.

 

[Xenobius]

Much like the big question mark over Apple blocking the 5,1 from Catalina, I'm baffled why Canon would block the 5,1 from editing all variants of Cinema Raw Light footage.

Probably due to the lack of extensions, which are in newer CPUs that speed up the apps.

 

[MacScout]

Any update on this?
I am experiencing the same problem on a mid 2010 Mac Pro (Dual 3.46ghz + Radeon VII)
Updated to the latest Canon Raw Plugin, 2.1 on FCPX 10.4.9
FCPX reads the C200 Raw fine, but not the 1DX iii Raw.
Davinci Resolve reads the 1DX iii Raw, no problem.