Back in the olden days (2 years ago), I would set the in and out points and batch capture all of my footage. Now, with a gig of storage costing around $1, I just capture my whole tape and edit from that. The advantage (perhaps the only advantage) is that I am not adding time to the play heads and transport mechanism of my tape decks or camera when I do it this way.

Before you start up FCP plug in your camera and turn on the camera and make sure it is set to Tape or VTR

Start up FCP, set the correct scratch disk.

Now, go to File, and down to Log and Capture

You will now see the log and capture window

You will first want to set the Clip Settings Tab, in the upper right side. Check both the Video and Audio boxes if you want both audio and video. I will usually stick with Stereo settings in the audio (I can split later). The current strange icon that is displayed is the stereo settings, just unclick the icon if you want to capture 2 separate channels.

Now, JUST TO MAKE SURE, go to the Capture Settings Tab. Select the Scratch Disks button and MAKE SURE IT IS GOING TO YOUR CORRECT DESTINATION!!!  What is nice, FCP will tell you how much footage you can capture

Now go back to the Logging Tab.  In the Description box you can type in the name of the clip

In the VTR controls, press the play icon

Wait until you see the footage you want, back it up a bit (remember to capture 1or 2 seconds more than you actually need on either side of the clip) and then press the Capture Now button.

When you have the footage you want, press the ESC key on the keyboard.  Your footage should be listed in the browser now. Repeat until finished with your capturing.