FCP uses a tabbed approach to the Log and Capture window.

The Final Cut Pro Log and Capture tool

Avid uses a much different approach. All the controls and settings are laid out in one window, the Capture Tool.

The Avid Capture Tool

The default tab in FCP is the Logging tab, where most of the work takes place. You name your reel (or tape #), the description, scene, shot, notes and other information.

Naming a clip in Avid uses the naming line as well as a place to comment. This will appear in the comment column in the bin. It is equivalent to the Log Note in FCP.

One of the most important things is marking IN and OUT points and shuttling the tape.
FCP spreads that out over the left side of the Log and Capture tool and is always visible no matter what tab you have selected.

Avid places that all at the bottom of the Capture Tool. The video preview happens in the record monitor (the same as the Canvas in FCP) unless you have disabled the confidence view in the settings. Mark MEMORY places a marker at a specific point in the footage.

The Clip Settings tab in FCP is where you choose to capture video, audio or both. Video and audio can be turned on or off to only capture one or the other. If you are capturing from a digital source (such as firewire from a camera or DV deck) then the video picture control and audio level control is grayed out as you can’t change those settings upon capture.

Avid uses toggle buttons to select video and audio capture, or both. If you have the ability to capture multiple channels of audio you can select that here. You can also choose not to capture timecode. The Input select pop-up allows you to capture from a different source other than firewire (or 1394 as Avid always calls it). This can be selected if you have a Mojo or other external Avid box.

In the FCP Capture Settings tab, it is where you set the scratch disks to capture media to as well as the proper device control and the capture settings. In FCP, scratch disks are selected through another window where you can add disks and tell FCP where to place the audio and video.

Avid uses a pop-up to select the scratch disk. It sees all available disks (the system disk can be filtered out in the Settings) and they can be grouped so Avid will switch to another disk when one gets full. The bold name is the disk with the most free space. Res: is like the FCP Capture/Input pop-up in that it chooses the resolution of the media captured. Bin: is the place where the footage will reside. This is equivalent to the Logging Bin in FCP.

And how do you actually capture?

In FCP, live capture happens by clicking the NOW button. If you have IN and OUT points marked CLIP will capture from the in to the out. If you have logged clips, BATCH will prompt you to capture them.

In Avid, the Big Red Record button is the key. Click it for live capture. If you have marked IN and OUT points it will capture between them. Logged clips are captured through the Bin > Batch Capture.. menu. Avid has a trash can that is one click to aborting a capture and either discarding or keeping the media. Very handy.

If you are the type of editor that prelogs a tape and then batch captures them, both apps allow the logging of tapes. In FCP you jog and shuttle and mark IN and OUT points at will and then use the 'log clip' button or the key command. In Avid you click the deck button to enter LOG mode. After setting IN and OUT points you click the log button (which has changed from the big red record button to a pencil.) FCP does one nice thing that Avid does not do in that if you check the camera slate by the name, the app will automatically increment the last letter or number of a clip after it is logged. So you can label a clip as take.01 and after each log it will increment ... take.02, take.03 after each clip is logged.

As all editors know, one of the most important things in non-linear editing is keep track of your tape (reel) numbers. When you put in a new tape in FCP you see this:

In Avid, you get this: It’s easy to see which is more useful and intuitive.

Avid also has great interactivity while capturing that FCP does not have. Avid allows you actually log and sub-clip while digitizing. By pushing specific marker buttons, a colored marker will be added at that specific frame as the footage is captured. And you can also sub-clip with the F1 key acting as the IN point and F2 as the OUT point. When you are done with capture, the subclips will appear in your bin as well as the master clip you were capturing. You have to be fast on your feet for on-the-fly sub-clipping but it is very handy.

This interactivity is an Avid strong point. In FCP, once you hit the capture now button or send a batch off for capture you are presented with a jerky preview in the middle of the screen. In Avid, the preview happens in the record (or canvas.... the right) monitor unless you turn this option off. But you also still get the timecode readout running as the footage is captured. Sub-clipping and markers on-the-fly is great but just the ability to see the timecode run is almost a necessity. I hope that FCP add this in the future.

This is a simple overview of the two log and capture tools. Obviously with applications as detailed and complex as Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress Pro there are a number of features and details that haven’t been mentioned. But hopefully this overview will be helpful to anyone moving or contemplating the move from one app to the other. Or do like I do, use them both!

I've placed some images at Flickr to further point out the features of both tools.

Have a look around the Final Cut Pro log and capture tool here.

Have a look around the Avid capture tool here.