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.