About to buy Panasonic HDC-SD9: Advice on handling large AVCHD files

Question

I'm getting married soon and want to buy a Hi-Def camcorder to use during the wedding ceremony and honeymoon. I like to Panasonic HDC-SD9 but have some basic questions. Please accept my ignorance!
a) I understand that the HDC-SD9 records in AVCHD, which on conversion to AIC in IMovies 8 greatly increases the file size. The harddrive on my Macbook is only 120GB and a converted one-hour AVCHD video is likely to make a serious dent into this. What is the best way to handle this?
b) Should I use the disk utility to make a copy of the SD card and delete the files from the SD card? How do I ressurect this when I need to use the raw footage? Can I play directly from the Disk Copy?
c) Should I convert the large AIC file into another form to save it on my harddrive? What is the best format to reduce file size? How do I do this?
d) Ideally, we want to give our wedding guests a copy of the wedding footage on a standard def DVD. Can we use IDVD to make a DVD from the AIC file? How much footage can be stored on a normal DVD?
e) What programmes can be used to play the AVCHD file? Can I play it back on Quicktime 7.5.5?
Many thanks

Answer 1

If you go the AVCHD route; My suggestion to most of the questions is to buy an external hard drive (format to Mac OS Extended) and load your footage to that and keep the drive. Then guard it with your life.
IMO: Tape is still an option that has advantages. The tape is a backup and they are inexpensive.
Most NLEs work with the formats and file sizes are smallish. AVCHD can bloat to nearly 50 gig an hour, DV, no more than 13.5 gig.
Al