eSpire Marketing

Recently I purchased a Canon Vixia HSF10 for the extremely high price of $1299 at a local Best Buy. I was extremely excited to get the opportunity to use the brand new 1080P high definition camera. The camera is sleek and very easy to use…if you have a Windows Machine that is. I am a mac user. I love mac, they are in my and millions of other people’s opinions the best computing machine that money can buy. Apparently Canon missed the memo. I opened the box to find out that they only have exporting software available for windows computers!

Now I do believe that this is the 21st century; am I right? I guess maybe it was wrong of me to assume that a big company as large as Canon would have the common sense to send out cross compatible software, as not to pigeon hole a large portion of their potential buyers. I use Final Cut Pro for all of my video editing needs, as do hundreds of thousands of other users, large marketing firms, and big businesses alike. Let me tell you what I have to do in order to actually even begin to edit the hours of footage I’ve shot in the past days.

WARNING: If their are children in the room you might want to read this later, the anger level could cause you to want to swear loudly

Step 1
After searching for two hours to see if Canon had gotten with the times and posted any sort of software to fix their compatability nightmare, I found only one feasable solution, import the live footage into iMovie then export it to Final Cut. Now that does sound like a pretty easy solution right? WRONG!

Step 2
After you have waited for 1.5 hours for your video footage to actually import to iMovie, the next step is to spend another hour or so “pre-editing” the video footage to be exported to final cut. This is an HD camera, if you don’t have the money to spend on a supercomputer like the big dogs have, this process will take FOREVER to do.

Step 3
FINALLY you are ready to export the pre-edited video from iMovie to send for the final editing in Final Cut. The next step is to wait 5 hours for your footage to export from iMovie into a compatible version you will be able to actually edit in Final Cut. I suggest going to the bar and getting a beer or two while you wait, maybe run some errands, by the time you get back your video might actually be ready to be imported to Final Cut for final editing. (NOT SURE HOW LONG THAT TAKES. I’m still waiting for this step to complete as I’m writing this article. It’s been 2.5 hours and iMovie still says I have 235 more minutes until I can edit the video.

Step 4
Go to Canon support once more just to double check that you didn’t miss something and there actually might be a better solution for the millions upon millions of Mac users. Fail miserably. Call Canon support to realize that they aren’t open again until Monday. Go get more beer or run more errands to settle your nerves.

Step 5
Tell all of your friends about this article and possibly even link to it. Post it on all of the major social networking and social media devices you can find.

Step 6
After you have finally spent however long you have spent finishing the final product, go back to where you bought the camera and return it. Purchase a Sony, they have better cameras, with better features, and have the common sense to have cross compatible software included with most of their cameras.

I don’t know that I have ever been so dissatisfied by a $1300 investment in my entire life. I expected to be able to use my brand new camera efficiently and with no problems. I WAS WRONG! DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA MAC USERS! That is all. Have a better day than Canon or this camera are allowing me to have.