Advice for buying a new camera - Q re iMovie

I see TONS of questions in this forum about frustrations with transferring video clips from my point-and-shoot cameras (Sony and Nikons). I am wondering if Apple supports one type of camera over another that I should give special consideration to while trying to purchase a new camera.

My Sony required a third party app to transfer the video footage into the right format for my Mac Book Pro copy of iMovie. (This was several years ago and I finally quit bothering since it was such a pain to make movies with all the transfers required. Unfortunately, this had been my reason from leaving the PC world and purchasing a Mac.)

We recently purchased a Nikon Coolpix S6300 for my son and I can't get it to even be recognized by iMovie.

I am now in the market to purchase a new camera and wonder if there is a good way to "buy right" the first time. Apple Support is not helpful here.

For what its worth (not that it matters), I'm looking at either a Sony Cybershot HX 200V - http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&s toreId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666429163#

or a

Canon Powershot SX40 HS - http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_286234_- 1?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=canon%20powershot%20sx40%20hs%20digi tal%20cameras&utm_campaign=Canon+PowerShot+Camera

Probably way too much detail to my question. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

For what its worth - I'm using iMovie 09

😕