Transferring from Sony DCR SX43 to iMac

[suzetta]

I bought this little handycam which has an SD card and came with a USB wire. When I tried to import video into iMovie via the USB, nothing appeared to happen. I tried opening it in Quicktime as well - nada.
My son was able to edit a short movie on a friend's PC which has an SD slot. But I'd hate to think this handycam won't let me edit stuff on my Mac.

I'm not a techy kind of person, but I have a Firewire - can I do a USB to firewire connection somehow and would that help? Will I need to buy an external hard drive?

 

[martinX]

When I tried to import video into iMovie via the USB, nothing appeared to happen.

Did iMovie see the camera? When I plug my camera into my Mac and import using FCE, FCE can see it but it takes a while for it to bring in enough clip info to display. Sometimes, quite a while...

Can you try "Making a backup copy of the contents of your camcorder" via iMovie and then bringing that in. At least this way, you'll have a copy of the lot. Check iMovie help and look for "archive".

Also, here's an interesting knowledge base article on that camera.

 

[suzetta]

Thanks for your reply Martin, haven't tested your suggestions yet but one question: what is FCE?

 

[Dave Braine]

what is FCE?

Final Cut Express. It's a more sophisticated video editor than iMovie.