Quality Converter For Video Project?

This semester i'm taking advanced video class, which I film with a camera and than upload to final cut in order to start editing. The problem is, I hate using the school cameras, they get taken easily and I never have time to use it. So I would like to use my iphone camera(don't mind the shaking) but i'm sure the quality will suffer once I upload the film from iphone to final cut, does anyone know any quality converters so I can have perfect quality?

If you are taking a graded "advanced video" class, you should care about the difference in quality between an iPhone (which CAN be good, depending on the environment & the user) and using one of the school's cameras (which are probably more advanced, both in quality and settings options). Final quality probably affects your class grade, based on how your project(s) turn out.

Plus, by not using the "school cameras", you might be only shorting yourself of a learning experience to learn all the various "pro" settings that go with using a decent camera.

We get a lot of Questions here in Y! A Camcorders about "how can I make my video quality better", when usually it's operator error or lack of good settings (or decent lighting) that's at fault.

Final Cut (being an Apple product) is designed to "play nice" with other Apple products like the iPhone, so you shouldn't have to use any transcoder (professional-speak for "converter") to import & edit your footage.

But take the time & trouble to use the excellent (hopefully) camera resources your school is providing. Part of the learning experience of video courses should be keeping track of expensive gear (without it getting "taken easily"), and the disciplines of time-management & advance planning when it comes to shooting & borrowing/renting video gear.

hope this helps,
--Dennis C.

1) You are not "filming with a camera" when *film* is not used. To *film* with a camera, the camera must use *film* which would be removed from the camera, sent for chemical processing - and perhaps digitized for editing.

2) Your iPhone is a smartphone. It is not a camcorder. There may be a reason for using the camcorders. If your teacher approves use of the phone rather than the school's cameras, then you should be OK. But you won't learn about shutter speed, iris/aperture settings, zoom, focus or any of the other things you learn when you use the camcorders.

3) Assuming your are given permission to use the phone as the video capture device, then use a steadying device. Like a tripod. Using your favorite browser, search "iphone tripod". I found
http://www.amazon.com/...B0092SPRDQ
If you capture video using a steadying device and not handheld, then you eliminate the shakiness. You can also use iMovie's anti-shake feature before editing in FinalCut.

4) Using a Phone's secondary "convenience feature" of capturing video can't result in "perfect video" unless you are willing to workaround the known limitations of doing what you want. A big part of video is audio. We don't know which camcorders the school allows you to use - but chances are high that they have a bit more functionality than the secondary feature of a smartphone - including shutter speed, iris/aperture settings, zoom, focus, white balance, audio inputs, audio control, and other features.

5) I like MPEG StreamClip from www.squared5.com

The quality won't suffer by transferring the video from the iPhone to Final Cut - it's the same string of 0s and 1s. What will happen is that the larger screen on your Mac will make it much more obvious whenever there's a problem with your original footage.