Camtasia is a screen capturing program that allows you to record your computer screen as you narrate. This is a great way to create "How-To" videos that walk people through the process of accomplishing a task. It also integrates with PowerPoint which allows you to record and narrate your PowerPoint presentation and turn it into a video.
What makes Camtasia powerful is that it has excellent video editing features that allow you to tweak your video after you record it and enhance it with many call outs and effects. And you don't have to be a video engineer to create a nice video because Camtasia is created to be very user friendly.
Here are some of the new updates in version 7 that makes Camtasia even more powerful:
- Produce and upload videos right to YouTube- Now you can send your new video right to your YouTube account without leaving Camtasia. It does all the steps for you when you are ready to post your video. This is nice feature.
- New library- You will appreciate this feature even more if you use version 6. The library not only comes with some professionally produced audio, intros, and music, but now you can store your custom items including call outs and video segments. In stead of creating the same pieces over and over, now you can save them for future uses in other videos. This is a very nice feature.
- More powerful copy/paste- Now when you are in the editing mode, you can copy any portion of your video (inducing call outs, videos, and enhancements) and place them anywhere else on your video time line. This is nice when you need to use the same elements and keep your timing exact.
- Enhanced call outs- Camtasia now comes with more call outs (graphics you place on your video to draw attention to specific elements off your video). New call outs include sketch motion which look like hand-drawn shapes. So, you can "draw" a circle on a part of the video you want people to see as you talk about it. If you are discussing keystrokes in your video, the new keystrokes call outs will visually show the keystrokes as you illustrate them. The new call outs make video instruction even easier than before.
- Audio enhancements- Of all the new features, this is the one I like best and one that makes upgrading worth it even if there were no other updates. You can now adjust audio levels much easier and add professional fade ins and fade outs to you video with a click of the mouse. Before version 7, I had to export my audio to an external audio editing program like Audacity, edit it, and then import it back into Camtasia. With version 7, I can now do all my audio editing within Camtasia.
Camtasia 7 also now lets you chose to record the sound from your computer's sound system if you want to. So, if you want to record segments of your Webinar and place it in another video, you can now do it and capture both the video and audio easily.
At $300 for a new version ($150 for an upgrade), Camtasia does take a serious investment of cash but in my opinion, it's worth it if you want to have a tool that offers such powerful features with an interface that caters to the average, non-technical user. And Camtasia has an extensive online help community that includes instructional videos that show you how to use all of its feature.
If you're interested in trying Camtasia, they offer a 30 day free trial. This is the full-featured version, not a "lite" version for you to try. Check it out and sign up for their newsletter. You will get a lot of recording tips during your 30 day trial.
7 comments:
Very cool Tony:) I'd be curious to hear your feedback regarding You Tube, how well has it worked for your purposes?
Interesting question... I have posted a few of my tips to YouTube but I haven't marketed my YouTube channel at all. It's there so people can embed select videos on their website. But I know a lot of people who use YouTube as their primary video marketing platform. I have found out that people who use Camtasia's YouTube feature really do love it.
I was thrilled to hear about this, because Windows Movie Maker wasn't working for me for one particular project. So I downloaded Camtasia tried it. Here's the result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwhGODXFFlY.
Unfortunately, the audio didn't render nicely. Not sure what to do about that, but don't have time to figure it out tonight.
I had tried a couple of other free editing programs, but there was nothing obvious about how to use them. Windows Movie Maker was okay, but Camtasia was beautifully intuitive for a first-time user!
Something crashed in uploading the video straight to YouTube. The second time it worked, but took too long to actually load to the site, so I rendered it in HD first then uploaded from my hard drive--the tried and true process. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the audio problem until after it was posted to the net.
All in all, I like this program and will probably buy it after my 30 day trial is up.
Thanks for the tip, Tony!
Hey Colleen,
I used the free open source Cam Studio for a while before getting Camtasia. Version six produced a good result, but it was a pain if there were any extensive audio editing needed. And it took forever for any editing changes to take. 7 is much faster and much more intuitive. So far, I really do love it!
I just watched your video. Blueberry sounds interesting! About the audio, I'm curious what that happened. I know that I finally went out and got a USB mic that sits on my desk. It had a great review (Audio-Technica AT2020USB Condenser) and I found it on Amazon.com a lot cheaper for a new one than anywhere else. It does great and since it plugs into the computer, no other equipment is needed. That and a $20 pop filter really did improve my audio, though it doesn't sound like this is the issue you have with your sound.
Thanks for telling me about your experience with the direct YouTube video upload. Though I haven't heard a lot of people talk about using the YouTube direct upload, none of whom I have received feedback from have told me about any problems. I will keep an eye on that and probably even try it myself soon. I still upload my videos the old way to YouTube since YouTube is not the initial stop for them.
I really am glad you came across my post. Thanks so much for the feedback and if you have further good/bad experiences with Camtasia 7, please consider adding more comments here. I am very interested in keeping up with what people think.
Hi Tony .. many thanks for posting this - useful to know about and how it can be used .. I'd love to give it a try sometime - I will! Anon ..
Thanks & useful to have Colleen's review and ideas ..
have a good weekend .. Hilary
I've been a pretty solid Adobe Premiere user for my video projects, because I think it has better editing capabilities, but I do only have Camtasia 6, do you think that 7 has become more accurate? Right now the only reason I even use Camtasia is for the screen capturing features.
Hey Stephen,
I have only used Camtasia, and I didn't find many comparisons to Adobe Premiere. I know that Camtasia cost $300 and it looks like Adobe Premiere comes in two versions: Elements for $80 and the full version for $800. It's not always the case, but without doing more research, I assume that Camtasia falls in between the two when it comes to functionality. I own a lot of Adobe products, and based on that experience, I also assume that Camtasia will probably be more user friendly for people who are not very technically savvy.
If you do a lot of video, it may be worth it to download the fully functioning Camtasia for 30 days and putting the two to the test. I would love to hear what you think if you test the two side-by-side.
Thanks for the comment. I wish I had a more concrete answer for you.
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