New iMac has no firewire. How do I fix problem connecting camcorder?

[John Schambre]

Recently purchased iMac (Retna 5K, 27-inch) and using Yosemite. My old iMac was purchased in 2008. The old iMac had a firewire port on the back but the new iMac does not. This has resulted in me no longer being able to connect my Canon camcorder to the computer to upload vacation and family movies. While the Canon camera is 8 years old (it is a tape camcorder with ) is works perfectly and makes great movies. I had no problem with it at all using the 2008 computer - plug it in and go! I contacted Apple Care and they checked to see if the camera was still supported - it is. They told me I needed an adaptor to go from firewire to thunderbolt. Unfortunately, Apple did not have the adaptor I need, because the firewire my camera connection requires is a 3 pin instead of a 6 or 8 pin (I don't know what all that means, but Apple does not even make one to adapt the one I need with their computers). They sent me to another Computer store to get a second adaptor and told me to hook the two together and it would work. It did not work. I took it to the Apple store. They worked with me for an hour and gave up. They told me to upload the movie to my old computer and then copy it to a flash drive and then upload to the new computer using the flash drive. That was fine for the movie I had on the camcorder now, but I'm giving the old computer to my Niece so what can I do after I no longer had the old computer? Apple doesn't care! They just say I need to get a new camera! I think that is arrogant and very unfair to treat customers like that. Why do they change the computers and then not make all the adaptors necessary to use them? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars getting another camcorder - I like the one I have. Someone recommended I sign up for a forum and perhaps another member will have some solutions to this problem. I will provide as much information on the iMac or the Camcorder as necessare to get this problem resolved. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I just want to be clear on this, your Canon Camcorder has a 3 pin firewire port?

How many pins on the computer end of the cable?

I will provide as much information on the Camcorder as necessare to get this problem resolved.

Yes please!

 

[John Schambre]

Thanks for your reply. I figured the info I provided would not be enough to help much so I have now pulled out the camera Manual and provide the following information:

CAMERA: Canon VIXIA HV 30
VIDEO RECORDING SYSTEM: 2 Rotary heads, helical scanning, digital component recording. HDV High Definition Video 1080i. DV Consumer digital
VCR SD system.
TAPE FORMAT: Videocassettes bearing the "MiniDV" mark
RECORDING MEDIA: MiniSD/MiniSDHC memory Card (tested up to 2GB)
SIZE OF IMAGES ON THE CARD: 2048 x 1536, 1920 x 1080, 1440 x 1080, 640 x 480 pixels
FILE FORMAT: Design rule for Camera File System (DCF), Exif 2.2 (also called Exif Print) compliant, DPOF compliant
IMAGE COMPRESSION METHOD: JPEG compression (Super Fine, Fine, Normal)

INPUT/OUTPUT TERMINALS:
AV IN/OUT TERMINAL: 03.5 mm minijack, Video: 1 VP-p/75 ohms unbalanced, Audio: output: -10dBV (47 kohms load/3kohns or less), Input: 10dBV/40
kohms or more.

USB TERMINAL: mini-B USB 2.0 Full Speed

HDMI TERMINAL: HDMI type A conector 919 pins). Output only.

CONNECTING TO COMPUTER:
TERMINAL ON CAMCORDER: HDV/DV to TERMINAL ON CONNECTED DEVICE (iMac computer): 6-pin (Firewire). Note: Be careful to correctly insert the 6-pin plug into the DV terminal inserting in wrong direction can result in damage to camcorder). NOTE: my mistake!! I thought it was 3-pin.

TRANSFERRING VIDEO RECORDINGS: You can transfer recordings to a computer using the HDV/DV terminal.

EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
1. A COMPUTER EQUIPPED WITH AN IEEE1394 (DV) TERMINAL OR AN IEEE1394 (DV) CAPTURE BOARD
2. A DV CABLE (COMERCIALLY AVAILABLE)
3. VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
4. THE APPROPRIATE DRIVER

I am going to try to include a photo of the Firewire (6-pin) connector that came with the camcorder and used to plug right into the back of my old iMac.

Thanks for any help you can give in finding a way I can get videos from my camcorder to my new iMac.

 

[honestone]

I have two Firewire 800 cables, and I am using one of them to connect one of my external hard drives to the Firewire 800 port on my Mac Mini. I use that drive for backups. When I want to use it for backing up my MacBook Air, I have an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Firewire 800 adapter, and it works fine when I connect the drive to Air. (I can also connect the drive with a USB 2.0 cable, but that would be slower). The Firewire 800 connector on both of my cables does not look anything like the one you have. In fact, I can't tell how many pins there are.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

You'll need to read through the information found via these 2 links to see whether you've been doing something different to the advice offered … let us know if you still need assistance.

Importing video to new iMac from Canon Vixia HV30

What do I need to connect my Canon Vixia HV30 camera to thunderbolt on an iMac?