rather than a different camcorder?
The Sony HDR-CX150 is just a flash memory AVCHD-compressing MTS file creating flash memory camcorder. If I connect that camcorder to a computer with a USB cable and use an AVCHD-capable editor - like Final Cut (Express or Pro) or Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere (among others), then capturing the video works just fine. Same goes for DV and HDV (but using a firewire connection instead of a USB connection).
If I copy the video from the camcorder to the computer, then transcoding is usually needed. This does not mean the MTS file type is "proprietary" - like AVI or MOV - just that some transcoding (converting) is needed.
The "decent camcorders" I work with capture DV, HDV, HDCAM, XDCAM, DVCPro HD and a couple of other formats. I have yet to have any "conversion issues" when they are properly connected to the computer and a "decent editor" is used for importing/capturing the video.
which decent camcorders (with a good zoom) record directly to a non/less proprietary format without the need to convert to mpeg etc.?
I have the Sony HDR-CX150 - great video quality but I am getting tired of having to convert every file. I will sacrifice quality to save time.

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