Exporting video off Canon PowerShot onto my Mac???

rebecca

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That's right, it's a three-question-mark problem that is driving me insane. Does anyone here have a Canon PowerShot that they use to take videos? I can't figure out how to get the frigging files off the camera and onto my Mac. I usually just let iPhoto fetch the pictures,but it wants nothing to do with the video apparently. I looked around and couldn't find the original software that might have come with the camera, and I can't find it online (just updates for it). iMovie doesn't seem to recognize the camera, and unlike my old HP camera, when I plug this on in (USB), it doesn't show as its own drive. I can't figure out how to access the camera at all.

HELP!
 
Well. I don't use a Mac, any form of Billie's software or flavour of UNIX but I do have a Canon Powershoot A80. And what I do is take the memory card out of the camera and insert in the ScanDisk 8-in-1 USB connector on my computer. There is shows up as a FAT-formatted disk with directories. One of the folders has *.avi files that I can display quite nicely with WarpVision.

Hope this helps.

YMMV.

Gord
 
Thanks Gord, though I don't have one of them there USB connector thingamabops. If I happen across one though, perhaps I'll price check.
 
WTF?

Is this "Canon" you speak of made of some odd hyperdimensional stuff?

My macs have never had any problem with photo or video.


I assume you tried "canon"'s website for applicable drivers? And...which version of iMovie do you have?
 
Possible Solution

I have a Sony CyberShot cam that can also capture MPEG movies —> The way to get them off the camera is this.


1) Plug it in with the USB / Firewire cable

2) Once iPhoto opens (if you have it set to open automatically) close it

3) Go to the "Applications" folder and double click on "Image Capture"

You should be able to download the movies from the image capture application.


Let me know if it works.

Best Regards.

Ed Gutierrez :)
 
The Canon may require a driver to view by using a USB cable, mine needs one. It makes it really annoying when you visit people and you want to give them your pics but you can't because you forgot your card reader and the driver CD. :mad:

Anyway Canon will have the necessary drivers on their website. But when you can invest in a card reader. They are pretty cheap you should be able to get one for $10 or less.

Hauteden
 
Just before the JREF cruise Miss P and I realized that we were missing the USB card reader from the laptop bag. We went to Walgreen's and got one for under $15 -- and we had a choice of several. The digital revolution is over, and we won.

Rebecca, if you plug the Canon in and open a Finder window, does it appear in the sidebar as if it were a drive? If so, open it up, burrow down into the folders and find the video, then just drag it onto your drive or desktop.

[edit] Sorry, didn't retain your posting that the camera doesn't show up as a drive. You definitely need a card reader. My iPhoto recognizes memory cards in one of those as a photo source and opens right up. I haven't plugged the camera itself in in years.

[re-edit] What model is the Canon?
 
Last edited:
xcoded said:
I have a Sony CyberShot cam that can also capture MPEG movies —> The way to get them off the camera is this.


1) Plug it in with the USB / Firewire cable

2) Once iPhoto opens (if you have it set to open automatically) close it

3) Go to the "Applications" folder and double click on "Image Capture"

You should be able to download the movies from the image capture application.


Let me know if it works.

Best Regards.

Ed Gutierrez :)
Click to expand...

YES! Winner! Thank you so much, Ed!


Mercutio said:
WTF?

Is this "Canon" you speak of made of some odd hyperdimensional stuff?
Click to expand...

The upshot is that the warp core can operate for six full hours before needing a recharge!

WildCat said:
People still use "Macs"? How quaint...




:boxedin:
Click to expand...

Heh, yeah, I get a lot of guff from my friends about having such an antiquated system of computation! I think this is probably one of the last 15" G4 Powerbooks that has been in near constant use for the past four years with no major upgrades that can still run dozens of intensive programs concurrently with absolutely no bugs, viruses, or crashes and still looks great doing it! Gosh, I can't even imagine what I was thinking when I bought it on discount. Oh the naivety of youth!

Hauteden said:
The Canon may require a driver to view by using a USB cable, mine needs one. It makes it really annoying when you visit people and you want to give them your pics but you can't because you forgot your card reader and the driver CD. :mad:

Anyway Canon will have the necessary drivers on their website. But when you can invest in a card reader. They are pretty cheap you should be able to get one for $10 or less.

Hauteden
Click to expand...

I have to say, Canon's web site was INFURIATING. I think the camera itself is one of the best values out there - high quality photos that are easy to snap, for a low price. Plus, I just bought a Canon printer that is absolutely amazing. But my god! Their 'help' sections were useless.

I'll look into a card reader for the future, though. Thanks!

SkeptiKilt said:
Just before the JREF cruise Miss P and I realized that we were missing the USB card reader from the laptop bag. We went to Walgreen's and got one for under $15 -- and we had a choice of several. The digital revolution is over, and we won.

Rebecca, if you plug the Canon in and open a Finder window, does it appear in the sidebar as if it were a drive? If so, open it up, burrow down into the folders and find the video, then just drag it onto your drive or desktop.

[edit] Sorry, didn't retain your posting that the camera doesn't show up as a drive. You definitely need a card reader. My iPhoto recognizes memory cards in one of those as a photo source and opens right up. I haven't plugged the camera itself in in years.

[re-edit] What model is the Canon?
Click to expand...

Another vote for a card reader, eh? I'll look into them, though at this point the problem is solved. FYI, it's an A510. Not sure why they don't set it up so it just shows as a drive. That was so handy with my old HP camera.
 
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SkeptiKilt said:
Canon a510 drivers Top right link.


Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the effort, though that is the first place I checked. The drivers are for Windows and the software is all updates.

Anyway, Ed's suggestion worked perfectly, very easy with no downloads.

I managed to upload my very first YouTube video! It's a reply to Rational Response Squad's call for people blaspheming the Holy Spirit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEgb90e6mFA

Hooray! Thanks again, all.
 
There were a couple of Mac items there, but it looks like they were updates to the original CD software.


Software
ImageBrowser 5.7.2 Updater for Mac OS X
2006-09
ImageBrowser 5.2.1 Updater for Mac OS X
2005-08
 
Canon cameras which are connected directly to a computer, do not appear as a "mass storage device" to any OS. Meaning, the data on the memory card does not appear as another hard disk which can be copied to-and-fro.

You must load drivers (or luckily the drivers are built in to the OS)

The way past this is of course to remove the memory card from the camera and plug it into a card reader, which will then appear as a drive in the OS.

This is one thing that I cannot understand why Canon does, and (off the top of my head) no other camera company does.
 
stormer said:
Canon cameras which are connected directly to a computer, do not appear as a "mass storage device" to any OS. Meaning, the data on the memory card does not appear as another hard disk which can be copied to-and-fro.
....
Click to expand...

They do to both of my computers. All I have ever done with any camera, from the Sony video camera (with photos on a memory card), and the digital Canon EOS Rebel is to hook them with a USB cable to the computer (Windows XP), then say "NO" to all the options that pop up.

Then I open "Explore", right click on "Start", and the camera opens up as a disk drive. Then I select the files, and copy them to the computer. I also delete photos from the card.

The reason I do this is that the other picture retrievers muck with the file settings... like removing the date/time stamps. I have not had a good experience retrieving photos with the Windows tool, the HP photo tool, nor with Adobe Album's tool... so I avoid them.

NOW... for my daughter's Canon Powershot, I open the little rubber battery and flash card cover. Remove the card and put it into appropriate card reader slot in my computer (daughter's computer did not have one, so we got her a card reader that plugs into a USB port). I also do this with son's digital Nikon camera. It is much faster than hooking the camera up to the computer.

The USB card readers are relatively inexpensive, between $12 to $20. We bought daughter's at Fred Meyer (kind of a west coast K-Mart). Put one onto your Christmas list.
 
PCMCIA slot

I have that lovely Aluminum PBG4, too, Rebecca. Crazy thing just works and works and works. PC folks have no idea...

Oh, and take a walk through the room at any given TAM and notice the laptops in use. Everytime I bothered to look, I saw many more Macs than PCs. Seems Apple's marketshare goes in proportion to rational thought.

Anyway, my favorite method for memory card file transfer is wireless! No, not Bluetooth or 802.11x. But rather the PCMCIA card slot on the left side of the Powerbook. You can get a card reader that plugs into the slot.

I'm also a Canon fan, and I'm disappointed with their move from compactflash to secure digital cards, but life goes on.

Here's an example of such a reader.
 
I have no advice or help to give as I own neither the camera, nor a Mac, but I do have a question for the OP (rebecca):

Is that you in your avatar? If so, where did you get those goggles? I think (from what I can tell in the picture) that those are exactly the kind of goggles I have been looking for a long time now. I can't figure out what they are called, so I can't successfully search for them. Could you offer any help?
 
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