Canon VIxia hf20 help!!!!!

I just bought the HF20 too & ran into the same problem. Anyone got any ideas out there?

I too bought a Canon HF 20 ... I read somewhere that I need to upgrade to Leopard and iLife09 (w/ iMovie09). I can afford to buy this upgrade but am hesitant to do so ...in case it doesn't work!

Am interested in hearing if anyone has successfully been able to import video clips via iMovie09.

I upgraded to iLife09 ... and i'm now able to import clips into iMovie 09 ... it's brilliant!

i'm running os x10.5.7 and just bought the canon hf20. why doesn't "Camera Window" recognize the camera?

We have the same camera and we only seem to have similar problems on the Mac that still has iLife '08. Havn't had the issue on my home computer running iLife '09. I would upgrade.

So how do we get the image from the camcorder hard drive onto iMac or into iMovie (I wouldn't want all video images to go into iMovie 09, maybe if i shoot 20 clips but want 15 to be imported into iMovie, is their a thumbnail folder on the desktop that the videos can be imported to first?)

Thanks for the help

Bad news -- it looks like the Vixia hf20 is NOT compatible in video mode with Mac. From the Canon web support site:

Issue: What is the Mac compatibility of my camcorder?
Solution: The digital video solutions disk is compatible with Mac OS 10.4 and up for stills only. No video related software is provided.

The video connectivity of the Canon DVD and Hard Disc Drive camcorders provided by the software bundled with them is designed for use with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Microsoft Windows Vista only. The Sonic Roxio My DVD software included with some models is only compatible with the Windows XP SP2 operating system when combined with a computer supporting the USB 2.0 specification.
Macintosh OS10.4.3 and up users may be able to view the contents of a finalized disk or files recorded onto the hard drive (for hard disc drive models) on the computer when it is connected to a USB port on the computer. With a finalized disk loaded into the camcorder the camera should show up on the desktop as a mounted drive and files may be copied (dragged) from the disk using normal procedures. Any desired editing, playback or other features may require additional third party software.

Note: Proper operation is not guaranteed.

That is odd. Apple lists the HF20 as [supported for iMovie.|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290]

You cannot use the Canon bundled software, but you do not need it if you have iMovie.

Appleman is right--this is about their camera software. Currently they only support PC's. It has nothing to do with being able to import video to mac applications such as imovie or FCE.

Has anyone here had any success exporting their HF20 movies in HD? I always record at the highest resolution (MXP mode) and yet HD is never offered when I go to export.

I have an HF-11 that's almost identical to the HF-20, and this works for me. I did run into an issue early on which I solved by (despite the warning msg on the LCD) disconnecting and re-connecting the USB cable, while plugged into the Mac!

An alternative I would recommend (that I use now for faster load), is to copy the movie files (use the camera's menu option for this) from internal mem to external Class 4/6 SDHC card, and then plug the SDHC card into an external reader (or a plug-in USB stick that supports SDHC) attached to the Mac.