Is HDV necessarily compatible with iMovie09?

[sweeperdave]

Gang,
I'm brand new in this forum. This is a two-part question:

I'm guessing this first question has been asked a number of times:
If an camera shoots in HDV on miniDV, is it necessarily compatible with iMovie09, that is, can footage be imported directly into iMovie? Yes, I'm familiar with Apple's iMovie compatibility page. It lists only consumer cams. Typically high end shooters use FCP or similar. Sometimes my clients want to edit their own shots I take and they only use iMovie. However, I know that at least one pro-level camera works fully with iMovie - the JVC GY-HD110. I'm guessing others might also but not sure. Particularly, I'm interested in the Sony HVR Z7U HDV output from tape.

Next question you might suspect:
The said Sony camera creates M2T files on compact flash memory cards. I'm wondering what the suitable solution might be to transcode or allow those files to import and be editable in iMovie.

Thanks much.

Dave