Editing without losing so much quality?

[zedzeb]

Hello. I was wondering if there is a way to slightly improve the brightness of the video without any, or a lot of noise. I did some recording yesterday for a video, and it looked pretty bright, no problems... but then when I put it into Final Cut Pro to log and capture, it seems very dark except when I'm recording a screen.

Thanks

 

[kenrivers]

I've had a similar problem though it was with Premiere and found that if I viewed the same footage on a different monitor that the video would appear brighter. For example if I use my laptop to edit and use the built-in screen the footage will appear darker than it does if I use the HD TV as a monitor. I don't know what the FCP equivalent is but have found that using Auto Levels and then adjusting the white clip helps. I have used Auto Contrast but it seems to introduce more than acceptable noise.
Another possible solution, and I need to do this myself, is to calibrate the monitor to make sure the colors are accurate.