Re: Footage color & level change upon import/export

Ok couple of things. Assuming you have your sequence settings matching the ProRes422 codec, the issue isn't H264 in a sequence which can produce weird results.

Snow Leopard can be set to display gamma of 2.2 or 1.8 . If you are doing broadcast work you want 2.2 so the computer monitors best match the external monitor which for broadcast spec is 2.2 gamma. As you are doing programs for the web, then 1.8 will be better as FCPs display will better match the way computers and players like quicktime & VLC etc display the footage.

I am not sure how you are getting from FCP to your monitor but unless it is via a card An external monitor will be 2.2 gamma (depending on how you are feeding signal to it) and also for grading you should attempt some sort of calibration. I suspect your problems are a combination of gamma with monitoring and also not grading with a calibrated reference monitor so you have many variables in the display worflow, hence the inaccurate results.

Also not sure what you are using to grade but there may be variables there as well.