Apple has put online a list of camcorders supported by iMovie 09:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US
One finds there without surprise the devices that encode in MPEG 2, AVCHD but also in MPEG 1, MPEG 4 and H.264.
Note that Apple strongly insists on the fact that its system eliminating the camera shake has sometimes a difficult operation with the CMOS sensors (the main part of the general public video cameras).
This filter can increase defects of the image related to the incomplete captures in the event of too abrupt movements.