iMovie no longer recognizes Canon XL2 firewire

OK, I don't know if anyone else is having this issue. I have rented several Canon XL1 / XL1s / XL2 in the past, and was < easily > able to import the miniDV footage into iMovie. However, with the latest operating system and my G5, iMovie HD 6 does not recognize there is a camera attached via FireWire (4-pin to 6-pin). At first I thought it was the cable, or the camera, but it will connect to a Dell laptop via the 4-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable (but that doesn't help me because then it imports the video in AVI -- yuckkkk). Any suggestions. Canon's website says the camera is compatible and there are no drivers to download. Thanks.

G5 dual 2.3GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.5GB RAM, 2nd 250GB SATA internal HD