jvc gz-mc500e

iMovie is a DV-editor, meant to import lossless from miniDV devices via firewire and by using the same codec as tape, 'dv' ...

your device is for sure not supported by iLife...

reading the specs, it seems so, your device is using 4GB compact flash 'drive', to record movin' images.. I havent found a word about the used codecs..

soo, we stumble into two problems
a) format of that drive.. Macs are able to read many harddrive formats, fat32, ntsf, udf .. but probably, yours is proprietary .. then: end of the road ..
b) format of files.. IF you manage to read out the file/mount that device to your Mac, you have to find out the codec fo the files .. I guess somekind of mpeg.. there are solutions for Mac converting that playback-codec-...


summary: get a miniDV camera.. ;))

My Google search shows that your camera records video in MPEG-2 format.
You'll need MPEG Streamclip (free) and the Apple MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20) to convert the files to DV Stream (.dv) for use in iMovie.

== Addendum ==

found this quote in some forum:

JVC has decided in a moment of madness that the MPEG2 files on the microdrive should have the suffix .mod
And this is the real problem. The mod-files are very nice quality MPEG2.
If you just copy the files using a microdrive compatible cardreader, and renames the files to .MPG ... then you can edit them ...
Hovever the sound is 2 channel AC-3, and this gives problems in most NLE's.

sooo:
card reader, renaming, then the usual combo of Apple mpeg2 component (19$) + Streamclip (www.sqaured5.com , free) ... but probably no audio.. AC-3/Dolby is tricky on Macs..