At the editors, we are big fans of the program Snagit that makes it easy to take a screenshot and edit it immediately. Maker TechSmith offers Camtasia a program with which you can also record your desktop as a video.
Camtasia is the perfect tool for bloggers, educators, sales managers, marketers or trainers who often give presentations and would like to publish them on the web as a reference for clients or readers. The program makes a video recording of the screen and/or webcam. For example, you can give a video review, course or training and then edit it without effort in the specially designed video editing tool. After editing, a video can easily be sent to YouTube or saved in one of the many file formats.
Camtasia Recorder
Camtasia can be divided into two different tools: Camtasia Recorder and Camtasia Studio. Recordings can be made with the Recorder. These can be webcam and/or audio recordings and screen recordings. Screen recordings can be made from a full screen, or a program can be selected to record (when recording a PowerPoint presentation, the PowerPoint Add-in Toolbar is also available). In version 8, the recorder engine has been completely rewritten and it is now possible to record 3D games in high quality without much delay. Before recording, the recorder neatly counts down from three to one and then starts recording. After recording, it can be viewed immediately, saved and sent to YouTube or edited in Camtasia Studio.
The recorder can record the screen, the images from the webcam and audio recording.
Camtasia Studio
Camtasia Studio is a comprehensive video editing tool specially designed for creating blog videos, vodcasts, video workshops or e-learning videos. Also, don't confuse it with a software package like Adobe Premiere, because Camtasia Studio is intended for a completely different audience. The interface is divided into the Timeline (at the bottom of the screen), a preview with editing options (on the right of the screen) and on the left a window with the various editing options such as the possibility to add media files, a library, effects, zoom in and out, visual options, the ability to create a quiz and many more options.
Do not confuse Camtasia with any other video editing tool. Camtasia is specially made for screen recording and editing.
Working with Camtasia
Working with Camtasia Studio 8 is child's play. In the right field an editing option can be selected, for example with Callouts an arrow to point to something in the video. Once the arrow has been added, in the right window you can set the time it should take for the arrow to draw and disappear (fade-out) and the color with possibly some effects such as a shadow. The position and size of the arrow can then be changed in the left field, and the time at which the arrow appears at the bottom of the Timeline can be changed.
Editing a video is a piece of cake with Camtasia Studio.
Timeline
The Timeline, which has been thoroughly overhauled in version 8, is divided into various so-called Tracks to which the various parts can be added. Each media file can have its own track. But also the Callouts, audio, webcam recordings, etc. can all have their own Track or be combined into a track or part.
Each track can be edited and moved separately, but tracks can also be merged.
To publish
After editing a video, it can be published directly from the program to YouTube or Screencast.com (TechSmith's own upload service) via the Produce and share button in a few simple steps. There is also a wide choice of different file formats to save the video in: WMV, MOV, AVI, M4V, MP3, GIF, Flash, HTML5 or MP4.
Publishing can be done directly to YouTube or Screencast.com, but there is also the option to save the program in one of the many file formats.
Conclusion
Camtasia Studio 8 is a fantastic tool which is very accessible. On the TechSmith website you can find various instructional videos in English about how the program works and what else you can do with it. It is clear to us that this is a good piece of software. Unfortunately, the price also shows that: 265 euros for a hobby blogger is a lot of money. Fortunately, a trial version is available so you can try and see if Camtasia is exactly what you expect it to do.
Camtasia is an easy program with which you can publish a professional video in a short time.
Camtasia
Price € 265,-
Language English
Medium 241 MB download (a disc is provided for an additional fee).
Trial version 30 days
OS Windows XP/Vista/7
System requirements Dual-Core processor, 2 GB RAM, 2 GB hard disk space, resolution of at least 1024 x 768
maker TechSmith Corporation
Judgment 9/10
Pros
Easy to use
Many improvements over Version 7
Many possibilities
Negatives
No Dutch
Duration
Pretty heavy system requirements
