Video Editing Software recommendations

[Blessed]

My husband is wanting to start playing with a bit of video editing - a few of his buddies have been videoing their hunts and he wants to compile clips into a 30 minute or so video (in order to promote the waterfowl hunting guide service they are thinking about starting.)

What affordable editing software do you recommend? This is something I've never dabbled in before!

Thanks!

[vangogh]

The video editing software I'm most familiar with are those that deal with screencasting. You can import videos from other sources and edit them though. I assume you're on Windows and the main screen casting program is Camtasia (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp). They have a free trial if you want to test it out.

Here's a chart comparing 14 different video editors (http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/). All much less expensive than Camtasia above.

[Blessed]

Thanks Steve - I just use iMovie on my Mac, because pretty much all I do is compress home videos of the kids to email to the grandparents... :) but Dave uses windows so I'll check out Camtasia and the chart.

[vangogh]

On a Mac there's a program called Screenflow (http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm) that's pretty much the same as Camtasia. It's about $200 less though. Also Camtasia makes a version for the Mac that's less expensive than their Windows program.

I've tried demos of both and either is a good choice. Both are made more for screencasting, but like I mentioned above you can import videos and edit them.

Final Cut Pro is still the heavyweight editor for Mac, but it's pricey.