When i connect my canon video camera it wont do anything?

Question

I connect my video camera to my computer with a usb cable and i wont connect and i need to import my videos to my computer so can you help me

Answer 1

Since you didn't tell us WHICH Canon camcorder or computer, it is a bit of a challenge, but I'll guess that you are using a miniDV tape based Canon camcorder...

You need to connect the DV port of the camcorder to the firewire400 port of your computer using a firewire cable. USB will not work.

Firewire400, IEEE1394a, i.LINK and DV are all the same thing. The DV port on a miniDV tape camcorder is ALWAYS 4-pin. The firewire400 port on your computer can be either 4-pin or 6-pin... keep this in mind when you get the firewire cable.

If your (Windows) computer does not have a firewire port, hopefully it has an expansion slot so you can add one.

Apple Macintosh computers have had a Firewire port standard for about 10 years - the only exception is the new MacBook Air - no firewire port. You will need a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable.

Once the firewire port is working and you connect the camcorder, the camcorder needs to be in "Play" or "VCR" mode.

Using Windows, you will "capture" the video with MovieMaker.

Using Macintosh, you will "Import" the video with iMovie.

No, a USB-firewire converter/adapter will not work.