iPhone 3gs video conversion/quality in final cut vs. after effects

[Drummer1222]

Ok, my problem is this:

I am trying to edit a lot of footage taken with a iphone 3gs and would like to use final cut pro, but it seems that upon importing the files from either iphoto or another location it compresses it or does SOMETHING to make the quality worse. When i view it in QUICKTIME it looks great. (in other words, any time i click on the file in iphoto directly, the quicktime preview is outstanding, perfect full quality - Quicktime version 7.6.2)

Now, i did do some editing in After Effects CS4 and it DID NOT compress it or whatever.. there was no loss in quality, it looked just like quicktime.

I do not want to have to use after effects for everything because as we all know that is not what after effects is for and its a pain..

SO... what am i doing wrong? is there a codec i need to get for final cut pro?
I just dont understand why after effects would be able to handle the files properly and not final cut..

FINAL CUT VERSION (5.0.1)

Please Help..

 

[spinnerlys]

iPhone footage is highly compressed with the H264 codec, which is not suited for editing, so FCP will most likely convert it to a video with the DV or AI codec.

You can also do that yourself with MPEG Streamclip.

Also know that the preview monitor window in FCP will not show the full quality, something can be read about it in the manual that came with the software.

 

[matteusclement]

preview vs output

have you tried outputting it to another H264?
The preview pane is just that, a preview.