Stupid Video Camera

I insisted we buy a video camera. I wanted to capture our trip to China on tape. We didn't own a video camera when Casey was born, but our friends loaned us there for the trip, and I'm really glad we have some video of what it was like when Casey was first born. I work in an online professional development office were we have our own video specialists and an editing suite. They don't use work equipment for anything personal, but they know what they are doing. So when I was ready to purchase a camera, I did a boatload of research and took their advice.

I ended up with the Canon Optura 400.

Generally I've been pleased with it. It is very small and light-- two key elements of a camera I was trekking halfway around the world (literally) to capture the arrival of our daughter.

I started using it last spring-- April of 2006, to be exact. And I haven't done a thing with anyof the video I've captured. I still prefer my regular old digital camera (well, actually it's a new camera-- a Fuji one with a continuous shooting function, but you get my point). But this is nice for some things. Like our reactions to seeing Marcie's face for the first time.

Or Casey singing "the blues" with his Uncle Jason in Ohio. Bless their hearts, I promised I would download the video of Casey and Uncle Jason singing the blues as soon as I had a free minute. The recording happened in May. And I got some nice editing software for Christmas, which I've now downloaded onto my laptop.

But I'll be darned if I can get any of the video to download so I can edit it and throw it on a CD. I am not super computer techno savvy. I know my way around the basics, and that's it. I followed the instructions that came with the editing software, but every time I plug in my video camera, the computer tells me the hardware needs drivers installed. I've gone to the Canon site, but it insists no drivers are necessary for Windows XP. I've read the instructions on the editing software, and it explains that I need a 2.0 USB port and a video class 1.0 driver installed. I have no idea what that means or where to get it.

And so now I have (what I like to at least pretend is) tapes of incredible footage of Casey doing all sorts of clever things, visiting with his cousins in the summer, visiting his birth family, of our adoption adventure, and of our recent Christmas trip-- including Timour's proposal to Megan. But I can't put it on a DVD because I can't figure out how to make my stupid video camera download the video.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I'm sure it did come with some CD with the driver on it, but of course that was months ago now-- and I'm not likely to find it in the piles of junk . . . uh, I mean mounds of important paperwork and computer cables in our study.

AARGH!