how do I transfer video from my camcorder and save it on an external drive?

Hey CPD57!

You may want to use a program in OS X called Image Capture to save these videos:

Mac Basics: Connect your camera or camcorder

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2498

Get images from your camera via Image Capture

You can use Image Capture to copy images to anywhere on your hard drive.

These steps will copy image files from your camera to wherever you wish on your hard drive, but not to iPhoto's library. You can later add them to iPhoto if you wish.

1. Connect your camera to your Mac using the cable that came with your camera.
   Note: If your Mac has an SD card slot and your camera uses a compatible SD card, you can simply insert the card into your Mac instead of connecting the camera via a USB cable (then skip to step 3).
2. Turn on your camera. If your camera needs to be set to a certain mode to transfer photos, do so now by simply checking your camera's manual. The camera or more precisely, its media card appears on the desktop as a mounted volume.
3. Open Image Capture from Launchpad by typing Image Capture in the search field.
   Note: If iPhoto opens automatically, you can quit it.
4. Select the media card or your camera from the devices list, if it is not already selected.
5. At the bottom of the devices and shared list, you can choose to delete photos from your camera after importing them and you can choose which application opens when you reconnect your camera or card to your computer.
6. From the import To pop-up menu, choose where you want Image Capture to download your files.
7. If you want to import all the photos from your camera, click Import All. If you only want selected photos imported, choose the photos you want and then click Import. Tip: By pressing and holding down the Command key and clicking the photos you can select multiple photos. The photos you select will be highlighted (as shown in the figure above).
8. All photos that you import will have a green checkmark indicating they have been imported.
9. To disconnect the camera when finished, turn it off. To disconnect an SD card, click the Eject button to the right of the device. When the card disappears from the list, you can safely disconnect it.

Thanks for coming to the Apple Support Communities!

Cheers,

Braden

I'm on my iMac running 10.8.5 (may be slightly different with Mavericks, but worth a try)...

A shot in the dark (actually two of them):

Have you checked your Preference settings in iPhoto; in mine, I have it set to open no application when connecting a camera:

And, check System Preferences > Cds & DVDs - your Mac may interpret anything being plugged in as an external disk:

With these settings, I get the Canon (my camera) icon on my desktop; I can open that and do whatever I want the images/videos: drag them to a folder, an external hard drive, iMovie, or whatever.

how to transfer video from camcorder and save it on an external drive:

When importing video into iMovie use the Save/Import dialogue box and navigate to your external.To move existing Events/Projects to an external drive, plug in the external and open iMovie. The external drive icon should appear in both the Project and Event Libraries. Just drag Events/Projects and drop them on the icon. When moving a Project, you will be asked if you want to move the associated Events as well. Say Yes.

Interesting - which version of iMovie are you referring to? Does iMovie not change the file format/quality and/or compress the clip? If it does, then why run it through there if that step can be avoided? The only iMovie version I know of that does not is the old iMovie HD 06 (which I still use because of its' near lossless conversion).

Well, from the way I understand it, what you want to do is essentially use iMovie as a "pass-through" for a video to go from the camera > iMovie > external hard drive. I do not know if that works; I still have both the older iMovie versions, but could not find anything about that. After searching for "import", it appears to mean (at least to me) that you will be importing into iMovie, not passing it through to another destination - there really is no need to involve iMovie for that.

I don't know what media your camera uses, but if it is an SD card, I would just insert that (or use a USB card reader if necessary) and get the icon on the desktop. Once there, you can drag & drop onto the external.

Unfortunately, I do not and haven't heard of one either, but maybe someone else will chime in. Over the years, I've noticed (mostly from posts here and there) that Sony and Apple do not necessarily play well together - one of the reasons why I decided on Canons....

In any case, not having an SD or other removable card makes it more difficult trying to get the footage onto the computer. The only other thought I had was: if you have a Windows machine and it can import Sony footage in a more efficient and lossless manner, you could do it there and transfer it to the external from there.

Try the steps below to copy the video from the camcorder:

1. Turn on the camera.
2. Connect the camera to the computer using the supplied USB cable.
3. Set the camera to Mass Storage or USB MODE.
4. After the computer recognizes the connection, it will list the camera drive or drives as NO NAME or UNTITLED on the computer desktop.
5. Click the NO NAME or UNTITLED icon on the computer desktop.
6. Locate the video files

For AVCHD video

Click the PRIVATE folder.

Click the AVCHD folder.

Click the BDMV folder.

Click the STREAM folder.

For Standard Definition (SD) video

Click the MP_ROOT folder.

Click the 101PNV01 folder.

I would recomment to download Sony's Content Browser Version 2.2 (for Mac)

ContentBrowser_2_2_mac.zip

Content Browser is an all-in-one clip management application that can be used with the latest portfolio of Sony camcorders.

https://blogs.library.ucsf.edu/convergence/files/2014/06/UserEd_iMovie.pdf

It is 2016 as I'm writing this but I wanted to share how I transfer MP4s to my macbook from a mini external SD card. The icon for the SD card drive shows up on the desktop. When I open files I can see Jpegs readily but I don't see any of the MP4 files.

I discovered two ways to get them onto my desktop and from there to wherever.

1. If you have the Photos program you simply open it, go to File and scroll down until you see Import. Click on that and it will bring up all the folders and every file type in them. From there you can grab as many MP4s as you like and drag and drop them wherever you like. You can also import them into the Photos program, if you want to save them there, and then drag and drop them onto your desktop.

2. Open Finder and click on Applications. Find Quicktime Player and click on that. From there you will find all your MP4s and you can drag and drop them anywhere you like. No need to open the iMovie program unless you want to immediately edit a new movie file.

You take this same idea for PDFs. Just open up the Preview program in Applications and drag and drop wherever you like. I hope this helps someone. 🙂