Video making, camcorder, software, screen capture

Go for a 1080 (full HD) camera with a memory card storage.
Stay away from mini DV and DV's (digital video) because
you have to transfer the video to your computer as you would record it.
In the same speed by Firewire.
Camera with hard drives are prone to failure.

I like Pinnacle Studio, but that is because I know how to use it.
I guess that you will need to try some first to get a feel for them.
Camtasia I have never liked to edit videos with. Just the capture part.

Im am now a massive fan of CAMTASIA. I would really recommend it for its simplicity and large array of features.

I'm also a big fan of Camtasia for screen capture. It's editing tools are limited, compared to a full-blown video editor - but may be good enough for some projects.

As a one time audio engineer, I like audio editing in both Camtasia and in Acoustica (from ACON Digital Media). I love my Sound Blaster (by Creative) X-Fi audio hardware and built-in software mixer, with my Radio Shack 33-3012 Headset Microphone (don't see it on their site any more - was a clone of a Britney Spears stage mic) for voice narration (works great for Windows Speech Recognition too).

I moved over to using EasyVideoSuite for my screen capture and I've got to say I've been really impressed. Once recorded the software automatically uploads to S3 and then I do the editing online to add in any effects I need.

With camtasia I was never able to work out the editing part, and then really hated how complicated it was to get it online and sort out the uploading part, and normally had to use handbrake to reduce the bandwith so people didn't have to wait for it to load.

Lastly I've been really impressed with my snowball microphone from Blue, it's so much better than the crappy skype handset I was using before, and all the squeaky background noise has gone.

Good luck with using more video.

Then you'll need a camera, video editing software AND screen capture software.

For the camera, if you have an iPhone, you can use that. It has an excellent camera. The FiLMIC Pro app ($4.99 in the iTunes store), will give you professional-grade control over the camera, allowing you to set the focus, exposure (lighting), white balance, etc. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/film...436577167?mt=8

If you're going to use your iPhone, you'll need an iPhone tripod. I use this one: Amazon.com: iStabilizer Flex Smartphone Flexible...


You can also use your web cam, but that generally produces very low-quality, amateur video. The Flip is no longer sold, but I think you can still buy the Kodak zi8 and Kodak Playtouch cameras, both very good cameras. Important: look for a camera with an external mic jack. This will give you MUCH better audio when you have your own external lavalier mic!

Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 is the latest version and is very good video editing software. Movie Studio Platinum 12 Overview

Both CamStudio (CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software) and Jing (Jing, screenshot and screencast software from TechSmith) are excellent, free screen capture software.

Important: you need good audio and a simple microphone will make your video sound SO MUCH BETTER than without a mic!

For screen capture video, you can use a simple Logitech microphone like this: Amazon.com : Logitech USB Desktop Microphone... (Be sure to set CamStudio to capture the audio from the microphone and not the computer speakers!)

For live video, I use the Audio-Technica ATR 3350 lavalier mic. It has a nice long cord. You can also plug this into your PC and use it to record screen capture video.

Amazon.com: Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier...


You need an adapter for your microphone to work in the iPhone. You MUST have this to use a mic or it will just ignore you.

Here it is:
iPhone 1/8 inch microphone adapter - 3.5mm 4 conductor TRRS Male to 3.5mm Microphone Input Jack

So you plug the adapter into the iPhone, plug the Audio Technica mic into the adapter, clip the mic to your lapel, and voila! You now have EXCELLENT audio and are LIGHT YEARS ahead of 99% of everyone on YouTube! (YouTube is chock full of HORRIBLE video: bad lighting, bad audio, etc. Don't be one of those people.)

Now comes the fun: you can combine your live videos and screen capture videos into one video in Sony Movie Studio. Fun, fun!

Hope that helps!

Michelle

Being in the UK, I can't really advise you on a camcorder, but like others on this thread, I'm a big fan of Camtasia, too. Like Nightengale says: CamStudio is a good (free) alternative - although it doesn't come with any editing capabilities. Active presenter is another good program for screencapture videos ActivePresenter - Record screen, create interactive screencasts, software demo, software simulations, author rapid elearning materials with quizzes, create SCORM-compliant courses - Advanced Screencast & Rapid eLearning Authoring Tool (not an affiliate link). It comes with basic editing.


For editing I like Serif MoviePlus as it's very versatile. There are free (Free Movie Editing Software - MoviePlus Starter Edition from Serif) and paid (HD Video Editing Software – MoviePlus X6 from Serif not an affiliate link) versions.

When you say 'professional videos' good to define as best you can what you are shooting, camera requirements would differ according to what you shoot .. location work - buildings, interviews etc, doc/reality style, studio only work, greenscreen etc

I use:

Power Director 12 - I've been using their software ever since version 9 and its nothing advanced like Adobe Effects, but its one of the best I've found for amateurs. Its extremely easy to use (drag and drop), very intuitive, and you can put together really nice videos really fast (once you learn your way around it).

Adobe After Effects - I can't not recommend this program since you can do virtually anything in it. But it took me about 5 years just to learn Photoshop, and I just don't have the time or patience to learn After Effects like I learned Photoshop. I know a lot of basic editing tricks, how to work with templates and what not, but I am far from an advanced user and don't plan on mastering the software like I've mastered some other programs.

Camtasia - I have a love / hate relationship with Camtasia. It has never worked properly on my PC and it is a CPU whore. There are many things I can't do with it like record myself doing sound design projects on FL Studio (I've been sound engineering for 14 years so I like to do sound fxs tutorials and other stuff). Problem is, I can only record my voice and the screen, or the sounds from FL Studio and my screen. But I've never been able to record the screen, my voice and the sounds from FL Studio at the same time. For other projects, it works fine. But for more complicated stuff it never works right.

FL Studio - This is what I use for all my sound design / music / fxs. I may not be an expert at video fxs, but my sound skills definitely compensate for that. I've been using Fl Studio for over a decade, and can do virtually anything with it. Original trance music, rock music, orchestra music, music scores for video, sound fxs... I can change a voice in a million and 1 different ways. I have a studio quality mic, and run it through a long line of processing in FL Studio. Noise gate, compression, overdrive, excitors, vintage distortion to warm up a voice, filtering, equalizing, pitch correction... etc etc.

If you ever heard my own voice, before fxs and after fxs, Fl Studio makes a HUGE impact. If you want a voiceover the cuts through your computer speakers, a crystal clear, high quality, warm, deep, resonant voice, you can use Waves plugins with FL Studio to edit virtually anything. If I have any "tricks" in my bag its my mastery of this software. Once I have my dry voiceover done and the video content done, I can the video to a whole nother level with FL Studio.

Mic - I'm not going to recommend any mics since I have 4 of them. But I will say this. This day and age it is not hard to do industry standard video editing. If you have the right software, and know how to use it, you can do some crazy video editing and fxs.
But sound is a whole nother ball game imo. And sound is where most people cop out.

If you're gonna spend money for a HQ mic, then buy a HQ sound card (you can get
a great sound card for only $300). And spend some money to create a recording booth.
I spent about $1,500 on my mics, my sound card and my recording booth. I also use
to run studies in college about the fxs of different types of sound on emotions. And I can
tell you for a fact, Hollywood uses high end recording equipment for a reason. It creates a huge emotional impact and if you're a video marketer it will make a huge difference in your conversions (HUGE).

On the other hand, this is relative to your style of marketing. Sometimes you want more natural videos.... say like a review video. And you don't want studio quality sound. But some people take "natural" way too far. Like they'll intentionally reduce the quality of a voiceover so it doesn't seem to polished. Or they'll intentionally take the video out of focus. I have NEVER found this to increase conversions, and think its ridiculous that some fiver sellers do this intentionally (like banjoman / the preacher guy on fiver).

Its 2013, and people expect HQ video and sound. If you want the video to look more natural, then don't do any post processing to the content. But whatever you do, don't distort the quality to make it "natural". I can assure you, that will LOWER conversions, not increase them.

-Red

I can suggest two affordable and feature packed screen recorders, My Screen Recorder and My Screen Recorder Pro. Both are easy to use and provide high quality playback with many distribution options.

Mark... Great video thread!

I realize many people use this stuff for high-end productions, but for the VAST majority of IM'ers, the expensive stuff is overkill, big time. IMO.

I like simple as far as screen capture and webcam video making. Something like screencast-o-matic.com has a pro version that costs a whopping $15/year and gives you HD output, unlimited video length, scripting tools, editing tools, image captures, all kinds of truly useful things.

I'm definitely not bashing those who get the deluxe tools that cost a whole lot more. To each his own. But newbies should know that there are plenty of very cheap options that are actually solid choices for 99% of everything you'll ever need.

John

There are so many both free & paid video recorder softaware, I have been using the camstudio. To edit the Video, you can use the Ulead Video Studio. TO add sound even you can use the Windows movie maker.

There are so many both free & paid video recorder software, I have been using the camstudio. To edit the Video, you can use the Ulead Video Studio. TO add sound even you can use the Windows movie maker.

My most profitable videos were created using an $80 Samsung video camera. The content of the video matters a lot more than the production value, in almost all cases. And the color of Samsung is excellent. I never used an external mic and the audio quality was fine.

If money was an issue, I'd go with ActivePresenter (free) instead of Camtasia. If $300 isn't a problem, then go with Camtasia. ActivePresenter has a bigger learning curve than Camtasia, but if you're tight on cash, that $300 can be better spent on other things. And ActivePresenter is a very powerful piece of software in its own right.

For video editing software, I'd choose Powerpoint and Sony Vegas Studio. Powerpoint is $10 a month and get the cheapest version of Sony Vegas Studio (under $50?).

Add a good USB mic ($30) and the free audio program Audacity, so you can record your voice for screen capture videos and voice-overs.

This combo will cost about $160, plus $10 a month for Powerpoint.

The rest of the money I saved using ActivePresenter instead of Camtasia would be spent on a 1 year membership to Video Blocks ($99 a year) so I'd have access to all sorts of stock media files, such as stock video, music, sound effect, motion backgrounds etc.

With the remaining money, I'd buy a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese.

All of this is around $300, the same you'd pay for Camtasia alone, and will give all sorts of video making potential along with a big assortment of stock media.

There's my staff to make videos, logitech C920 cost me $70, Smartpixel screen recorder & video editor costs $15.9, so far so good.

Hello

I use Bandicam for my videos (Screen Capture)

Hope it helps!
Justin / Antrepreneur