The explosion of digital SLRs with video capability has turned many traditional videographers and photographers toward cameras such as the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS 5D Mark II/III, EOS 5D, EOS 7D, EOS-1D X, EOS 60D and the newly-introduced EOS Rebel T4i (EOS 650D) to create stunning high definition footage at a very affordable price. The impressive video image quality of Canon’s EOS digital SLRs is their use of the sophisticated H.264/MPEG-4 compression method for recording video files to the camera’s memory card. This is an ideal file type for video capture in an SLR camera, delivering relatively compact file sizes with image quality noticeably superior to alternate video compressions (such as Motion JPEG). However, the H.264 codec is not good for iMovie editing, it takes long time to render, and you can’t edit the Canon H.264 video files smoothly in iMovie.

In attempting of importing Canon EOS H.264 mov to iMovie for editing without problems, the H.264 compression format requires that files be transcoded into a format better suited to editing, effects, and color grading; this would usually be Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov). To achieve your goal smoothly, the following tutorial will guide you through how to convert Canon EOS H.264 videos to AIC MOV for iMovie, guarannteed to import and edit Canon H.264 MOV files in iMovie smoothly.

Transcoding Canon EOS H.264 MOV files for iMovie

The quick tutorial is using an easy-to-use yet professional app called Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac. It is free, clean and safe to install and use.

  • Run the Canon Video Converter for Mac, and load h.264 mov clips to the software.

You can click either ‘Add Video‘ button or ‘Add from folder‘ button to load source MOV files. If you want to combine the loaded MOV clips into one file, simply tick off the checkbox before ‘Merge into one file’.


  • Click the format bar, and move mouse cursor to ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express -> Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)‘. By the way, the Mac Canon MOV Converter also supports output Apple ProRes format for using in Final Cut Pro (Follow this tutorial: converting H.264 to ProRes for FCP).

  • Click the big button ‘Convert’ to start Canon H.264 MOV to AIC Conversion.

Useful Tips - By clicking ‘Settings‘ button, you are able to enter the ‘Profile Settings‘ panel to adjust video and audio parameters for your Canon MOV source files, including video size, bit rate, frame rate and more.

Once conversion is completed, you can click “Open” button to get the generated AIC MOV files for use in iMovie and launch iMovie to begin the import process. In iMovie, choose File > Import > Movies to import the converted Canon 5D Mark III, T4i 650D, T3i 600D, T2i 550D, 60D, and 60Da H.264 MOV videos to iMovie for further editing.

If you’re using Canon XF Series Camcorders, Canon Cinema EOS Cameras, Canon EOS DSLR Cameras, Canon PowerShot Cameras, and Canon VIXIA Cameras, and wanna edit, play or burn these files as well, you can read through Pavtube’s Word-Leading Conversion solutions for Canon Footage page and find out the most suitable solution to your problem.

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