using sony cybershot with imovie

In anticipation of our o/s holiday this year, I have been trying to solve a conundrum I've had since I changed my photographic equipment to a sony cybershot. I couldn't work out how to download moving images from the camera into the mac - and no amount of googling helped with the answer.  Tonight I discovered, by accident, and after exposure to some mac experts who gave me some new ideas, that having iphoto and imovie open at the same time, and once iphotos are all downloaded, I can 'see' the cybershot moving images in imovie (9) and can download them. Hurray! (Except now I don't have a good excuse to get an ipad before we go on hols. Hello gift idea!)