I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to Macs, I eat stupid food for breakfast.
I need some help. We have a Kodak “EasyShare C330” digital camera. One can record small movies on it.
We also have an Apple eMac of recent vintage, running OS X.
We also have a USB cable which connects the two.
I can download pictures from the camera to the computer without breaking a sweat, but cannot for the life of me, discover anyway to import and/or view a video from the camera. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.
I assume you’re using iPhoto? It would help if I knew which version on OSX and which version of iPhoto you’re using. I believe iPhoto 5 and above allows you to import video automatically from cameras - if you’re using an earlier version you’ll need to go into your camera via the Finder (does a white drive icon appear on your desktop when you connect your camera?), find the movie folder and drag the movies to your Mac.
I’m an iPhoto-hater so I use GraphicConverter to import all the stuff on my digital camera. The videos along with the regular still pix get downloaded to a folder of my choosing. To play the movies, it is necessary to right-click (or control-click) and select OPEN WITH and have QuickTime Player do the playback, as GraphicConverter isn’t really built for that.
Thanks guys; I’m not seeing the camer in the finder, but I installed Kodak’s “EasyShare” software and after much futzing around somehow was able to import the video files and open them with Quicktime. Don’t have a clue how to do it again, but I’m reassured that it is at least, physically/electronically possible.
I appreciate the feedback. Mods can color this thread closed.
If you have a recent Mac, you probably got iMovie bundled with it. iMovie can import from just about any camera. If you have a choice between Firewire and USB, use Firewire since it’s faster and support seems to be better for that technology.
That’s one option, probably the best one for your purposes. The camera probably will not show up in the Finder, but when you open up iMovie and start a new project, it should recognize that you’ve got a camera attached and give you options for importing. iMovie is reportedly pretty easy to use, so you shouldn’t have too much of a problem figuring things out from there. I’ve only played with it a few times since I don’t do video that much.
Another option is Quicktime Pro. The drawback is that it costs you $30, the advantage is that QT Pro is kind of a Swiss army knife of video programs. QT is nowhere near as user-friendly as iMovie, but it’s got more capabilities in certain areas.