Panasonic HDC 900 series

HI
I am thinking of purchasing a Panasonic SD900, and will store and edit the movies on my imac. A couple of questions, for the collective brain of this forum, if I may:
- I believe FCE will handle the AVCHD files much better than other applications (imovie etc) in terms of importing, editing and export. Is this the case? Does it keep it in AVCHD format, or does it re-code it? Any recommendations for how I should handle the workflow or files themselves ?
- I believe AVCHD is the optimium recording format I should use for max  quality. Is this the case, or do you record on other settings ?
Many thanks for any help or thoughts!

I've used the TM700 which appears to be similar in its recording format.  You ingest media from this camera into FCE via the Log and Transfer function.  During that process, FCE transcodes AVCHD files to the Apple Intermediate Codec, and they become ENORMOUS (around 40GB for an hour of footage).  You'd be wise to invest in an 7200RPM external firewire drive.

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