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Why does Canon not supply disks for Apple products?

C

cassandra44

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2008
8
0
We just bought a new Canon HF R100 camcorder and we were surprised to discover that the disks supplied are only for Windows. Not only that - Canon doesn't even bother to tell IMac users where to look for help!!
Surely Canon needs to wake up and realize that many customers are switching to Macs.....
I still have aPC while my husband has the IMac and so fortunately I was able to load the manual onto my PC to see how to get started! I can only imagine how frustrated people with only Macs would be when they can't even find out how to format the SD card without first loading the disk onto the computer!

Well now we are the next stage and want to transfer items from the camera to the IMac to that we can edit in Imovie. Can we do that or do we need to get software from Canon that will work with Imovie? We got several cables but we don't know which to use.....no explanation!

Nor do we know how to get the movies to play through our television. We have an HDMI system and of course we would be using the camera as the source. Any help would be much appreciated! I want to preview the movies to see how they look on our system before burning them to DVD

This is so frustrating. Things should be getting simpler for the average consumer who just wants to shoot simple movies and burn them to DVDs and watch them with the family.
You almost have to be a computer engineer to figure out what to do!!
 
Canon doesn't provide a software CD for the Mac because the Mac handles everything via built-in software. Windows always wants a driver for a new piece of hardware, so the manufacturer provides that on the CD, but the Mac usually adds drivers either through system updates or updates to iMovie/iPhoto.

By the same token, iMovie is much more capable than the built-in software in Windows, so if the camera is supported by iMovie, there's no reason for Canon to go to the expense of providing editing software.

In order to download your movies to the iMac, connect the camera to the Mac with the supplied USB cable - this will have a standard (flat and rectangular) USB connector on one end, and a smaller connector on the other. Looking at Canon's information site for your camera, it appears that the USB cable is the only provided cable that is all black, with no colored plugs at either end (those are video cables). Once you are connected via the USB cable with the camera on, start up iMovie (it's best to be running the latest version), and go to File > Import from Camera (iMovie may do this automatically).

To connect to your HDMI TV, you will need a special mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. Canon lists the HTC-100 cable at $70 on their website, but I've seen it for less than $50 at places like http://www.bhphotovideo.com .

Rick
 
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When I worked for Canon a few years ago there were 150 standard help desk techs and 10 Mac techs. People with mac's would wait on the phone for hours to get support. LOL
 
Thanks but just need one clarification

rnb2 said:
To connect to your HDMI TV, you will need a special mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. Canon lists the HTC-100 cable at $70 on their website, but I've seen it for less than $50 at places like http://www.bhphotovideo.com .

Rick
Click to expand...

Thanks Rick, I will get that type of cable but am still not sure where it should be connected to our system....Should I insert it into the receiver? At the moment we have a Wii plugged in there.
I guess another solution wouldbe to remove the SD card and use the Blu ray player to access it (we have a built in slot in that player).
We seem to have quite a complex system - which uses a universal remote called a "4" and the system allows access to home security, tv blu ray and everything else.
We had to get a technician to come in an instal the Wii!
 
Still cannot connect new Canon camcorder to 27in IMac

I tried to connect our new camera to the Imac using the USB cable provided by Canon. Nothing happened - nothing on the screen at all. Can't get to square one.
There is a warning with the USB cable that software must be loaded first before you can connect via the USB cable but of course there is no Mac disk (as I mentioned above).
I was thinking seriously of following my husband's example and buying an IMac to replace my aging PC but because of all the problems I am now leaning towards a multi media PC.
So far the problems we are having with Mac are as follows:-

1. It is very temperamental and only recognizes some DVDs and not others which makes it difficult to burn photos to a DVD. Why wouldn't it recognize a new Memorex DVD?
2. It only recognizes some memory cards and not others--no logic to this at all.
3. I cannot connect up to the USB on the Imac (using cables supplied) either my G7 Canon camera (which is approx 4 yrsold) or my brand new Canon Vixia Camcorder....Mac will not recognize either of them and there is no software provided for Mac.

While everyone says how wonderful Imac is for editing and so on if there are great difficulties in transferring over images to the Mac or in burning CDs then frankly it's not worth the effort. I'm thinking that I should get a new PC and load on a photo and video editing program. That seems simpler but I am open to persuasion that I should go for the Mac.....
 
Curious. Why not take the SD card out of the camera and put it into the SD card reader on the side of the iMac?

Easy to do. No cable required. No software required, other than the iLife apps. I would venture to say faster.

Pics can be imported into iPhoto. Videos into iMovie.

What am I missing?
 
cassandra44 said:
1. It is very temperamental and only recognizes some DVDs and not others which makes it difficult to burn photos to a DVD. Why wouldn't it recognize a new Memorex DVD?
Click to expand...

We had a Windows PC and it did not recognize many new, out of the pack DVD's. If you think this is a Mac issue, you are wrong. Do what we did ... try a DIFFERENT BRAND of DVD.

ALSO - make sure the DVD's you are using match the specs of the DVD drive in your system.

cassandra44 said:
2. It only recognizes some memory cards and not others--no logic to this at all.
Click to expand...

I belong to a Photography Forum and this problem is discussed a lot, where some cards are recognized in some systems and yet not in others. The Windows guys complain about this a lot. Often times the problem is caused because the card was formatted improperly or has errors on it. Even though the camera can read the card, there is no guarantee the computer will. It all depends on how you connect it. I had some XD and SD cards that my computer would not recognize directly, however if I put then into the card reader on my printer I could access the cards just fine.

cassandra44 said:
3. I cannot connect up to the USB on the Imac (using cables supplied) either my G7 Canon camera (which is approx 4 yrsold) or my brand new Canon Vixia Camcorder....Mac will not recognize either of them and there is no software provided for Mac.
Click to expand...

No software for the G7?
Where have you looked? Not here I guess .... http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/suppo...ot_pro_series/powershot_g7#DriversAndSoftware

No software for the Vixia?
Where have you looked? Not here I guess ..... http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer


Camera connection issues are COMMON on Windows machines as well as on Mac's. The most common remedy it to use a Card Reader and no connect up the camera to transfer files.




.
 
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Simple solutions to Canon camcorder issue!

Yes - inserting the video card from the camcorder directly into the IMAc works just fine ( but it certainly didn't work with the 8G Sandisk memory card from our Canon G7.
We were still puzzled why the USB connection didn't work and so we spoke with the salesman for Apple and he told us that the camcorder has not only to be switched on but it must be in playback mode for it to transfer to IMAC via the USB cable. He also told us that we had to use the power connector before we can transfer movies - can't use the battery.
Now wouldn't it have been very simple for the Canon people to put a little section in the booklet headed "Apple" and give out this information???
 
That information is very likely to be the same with a PC. Maybe you should have taken a look at the manual first, even though it is a "PC version". Most stuff is still likely the same, e.g. it needs to be powered when transferring data. Whether it's a Mac or a PC, it shouldn't matter in that point. The actual device needs to be powered when transferring data, that's how it works.

As I said in my first post, download the manuals from the links. It's not that hard
 
cassandra44 said:
We were still puzzled why the USB connection didn't work and so we spoke with the salesman for Apple and he told us that the camcorder has not only to be switched on but it must be in playback mode for it to transfer to IMAC via the USB cable. He also told us that we had to use the power connector before we can transfer movies - can't use the battery.
Now wouldn't it have been very simple for the Canon people to put a little section in the booklet headed "Apple" and give out this information???
Click to expand...

None of that is apple specific. It is in the manual (starts on pg 111). The cameras has to be plugged into the power outlet and in playback mode for either PCs or Macs.
 
I have had it both ways....where i was supplied mac versions of the software and where i had to go to canonusa.com to get it.
 
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