You don’t want to fill up your Canon camera with photos and videos. From time to time, you need to transfer those images and recordings to your computer or MacBook.
To transfer data from your Canon camera to mac or use your high-quality DSLR camera as a webcam to Mac you will need to make a connection.
If you are a Mac user you must have at least once thought about how to connect a Canon camera to your Mac. Luckily, we have got your back with this one and provided a few easy ways to connect your Canon camera to your Mac.
Connect Canon camera to Mac using an SD card (The easiest way if you just want to transfer data)
If you want to connect a Canon camera to Mac only to transfer photos and videos captured by your high-quality digital camera. You don’t need to find ways to connect it to the Macbook.
All you need to do is to take the SD card out of the camera and put it into the SD card reader slot of your Mac computer. This will allow you to save and download all the captured media from your canon camera to the Macbook.
Connect canon camera to mac using a USB drive
If you need to connect your canon camera to Mac to do more than just transfer photos. You will have to connect the camera to the Mac OS.
Most people want to shoot with computer software for enhanced photography. For doing that it is necessary to physically connect the canon camera to Mac using the USB cable.
Macbook Operating System keeps updating from time to time. So, before trying to connect your camera to Mac make sure your camera (driver and utility software required to recognize your camera by mac) is compatible with the macOS.
Before connecting the Canon camera to Mac using a USB cable. Download the drivers and utility from the canon support link. Once the image transfer utility or webcam utility is installed, you can simply connect the canon camera to the mac using the USB cable that comes with your camera. In case you don’t have a cable, get this USB Cable Cord for Canon.
How to connect canon camera to mac using a USB cable
Follow these steps to connect your canon camera to your Mac using a USB cable:
1. Plug in the USB cable to the camera and connect the USB lead to the mac USB port.
2. Make sure the camera is turned on when plugging into your mac.
3. Mac should pick the camera automatically and the photos pop up. If not, try to run the image capture mode and plug the USB cable into the camera again.
4. Do not use unbranded or cheap USB cables, chances are that these are only charging cables and do not provide any data signal to your Mac. Which will cause unrecognized device errors.
How to connect canon camera to mac wirelessly without using a USB cable
Did you know you can use your camera remotely from your mac computer?
You can connect a Canon camera to mac wirelessly with wifi or Bluetooth functions.
Before you connect the canon camera to Mac without a USB cable. You need to make sure your camera supports wireless functions.
To do that, press the menu button on your camera and go to the setup tab. In setup tab #5, you will see the wireless communication settings. From there you can select wifi or Bluetooth functions to establish a wireless connection between your canon camera and mac for remote operation.
How to Connect canon camera to mac using wifi
1. Make sure the camera is powered on
2. Go to the wireless connection tab and enable wifi if it is disabled
3. Open the wifi selection menu to select the device you want your camera to connect to. For mac, select remote control (EOS utility).
4. Select a device to connect and the camera wifi will search for nearby wifi mac computers. It will also display the passcode of the camera wifi to make a secure connection.
5. Now, go to wireless settings in your mac computer and select the device model name from the wifi devices list.
6. Enter the SSID code to allow the camera wifi to connect to Mac.
7. Once the canon camera is connected to mac you can open the EOS utility software where you can transfer photos or use the camera remotely.
The mac computer cannot connect to the canon camera via Bluetooth. The Bluetooth connection is only available for connecting the camera to iPhone and iPad using the “Canon Camera Connect” app.
Connect Canon camera to Mac as a webcam
Canon also has a utility to use your camera as a webcam on a Mac computer. This is great if you work from home or regularly connect to your family on video calls. This function allows you to make high-quality video and conference calls.
To use canon camera as a webcam to mac. You will need to establish a USB cable connection between the camera and Mac. Then you need to download a compatible EOS webcam utility for macOS. Set the camera in movie mode. If you want a conference call. Use the settings from conferencing app and select the EOS webcam utility as the webcam source.
Video : https://youtu.be/xNqGrB8LdZ8
Video : https://youtu.be/UryN2_YNAdc
Why would my Canon camera not connect to my Mac?
If your camera is unable to connect to mac there are a few possible reasons for that.
Either the software utility or driver used in mac is outdated or the macOS and the version of the utility are not compatible. You need to select the accurate version of your macOS when downloading the EOS utility.
We have already mentioned the original link to the EOS utility software page above.
There could be a physical problem too which may keep the canon camera connected to the mac. These physical issues come mainly from the USB cable used to connect both devices.
How to fix the Canon camera not connecting to Mac?
Using the correct versions of both the camera utility and macOS will help solve the software issues causing problems to connect the Canon camera to MacBook.
To solve the physical connection errors. Restart the camera and update the camera drivers in the MacBook. Use a good quality USB cable that can transfer data signals from the camera to Mac.