I connected a Canon HF R700 to my computer via a USB connection.

Computer is not detecting it ?

Do I need an additional program ?

Why do you think your computer is not detecting the camcorder ?

Have you checked kernel messages with dmesg | tail when you plug it in ?

Does it show up in the listing with 'lsusb' ? lsusb shows all connected usb devices.

When there is no icon showing that something new is connected, I figure it is not detecting the camera.

From my manual, it does have wifi capability.

Since it also has a cable to connect camera to computer, it should be able to transfer movies and pics to the computer.

I can take the memory card out and get movies and pics but do not want to wear that out.

"When there is no icon showing that something new is connected, I figure it is not detecting the camera."

There is a big difference between the kernel detecting a piece of hardware and a desktop environment such as KDE or GNOME opening up a window of some sort or creating a desktop icon. When you plug in a flash drive or an external hard drive a file manager often opens up. This action is programmed into the DE. Similar for connecting a digital camera. KDE offers options to open up a photo application or the file manager or other options. There may be no actions programmed for video cameras in the DE but that doesn't mean the kernel isn't detecting it.

When I turn on my Samsung laser printer it is detected by the kernel, shows up in the 'lsusb' output and many messages are printed in /var/log/messages. I can print to it. However no windows pop up and no icon is created.

I don't know if your camcorder is being detected or not however no icons being created does not mean anything. No icon is created for my printer and I can still print to it.

The output from dmesg tells us nothing unless the camera is being treated like a printer.

If a camcorder is detected by the kernel it should create a device file such as /dev/video*.

You can then use a command line application such as dvgrab to download video over the usb link.

$ dvgrab -V -input /dev/video0 filename

From the dvgrab manpage

-V, -v4l2

Capture from a USB Video Class (UVC) device that supports DV. This uses the uvcvideo kernel module via V4L2. The default device file is /dev/video. Use the -input option to set a different device file.

I forgot to mention this in my first message but it is best to look at the messages in /var/log/messages as they are all date and time stamped. You would look at the messages at the exact time you plug in your camera.

For example when I turn on my printer I get these messages in /var/log/messages.

Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 10 using ehci-pci
Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=324c
Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: Product: Samsung ML-1740 Series
Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Aug 9 13:27:51 server47 kernel: usb 5-1.4: SerialNumber: 2W61BKCX915167X0

$ sudo less /var/log/messages

You should also check whether a dev/video* device file is created.

& ls -l /dev/video*

And as I mnetioned in my first message check the output of lsusb, which shows the output of all connected usb devices.

$ lsusb

example
$ lsusb | grep Samsung
Bus 005 Device 010: ID 04e8:324c Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd ML-1740 Printer

You are just chalk full of good info. :-)

Many devices use MTP which is different then a USB mass storage device which would create an icon on the desktop. If that dmesg output was after you plugged in the camera then it was not detected. There could be a configuration setting that pops up on the camera monitor when you plug it into the PC.

I did not see any type of configuration that showed up when camcorder was connected.

Guess it is not Linux friendly.

I will stick with using memory card to transfer pics and movies.

I found this on another Ubuntu forum about someone with an older Canon Vixia camera successfully downloading video using USB. This post is from 2012 so Canon video cameras can download over USB. The camera needs to be set into a certain mode.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1934612

The following is from post #5

Re: Canon Vixia HF M31

The camera does not automount when you plug it in. You need to press the little button called DISP (onscreen display), shown on Page 11 of my manual. When the DISP is pressed, the camera recognizes that it is connected to the computer and the camera display requests that you select how it is to be connected. When you select "Computer/Printer", the camera should automatically mount as a USB device and you should see a folder named "PRIVATE". From there, select AVCHD, BDMV, and STREAM. Under STREAM, you should see a bunch of .mts files. Let me know if this works OK for you.

For me, this works the same way with Mint 12 (Ubuntu 11.10), and Windows 7.

My camcorder does not have that DISP button.

As michaelk mentioned, I think mine uses MTP which is a better system for storing pics and movies.

https://sites.google.com/site/learne...b-mass-storage

I am sure there is a Linux programmer working on a fix for it.