Awesome, thank you very much!

Awesome, thank you very much!

Awesome, thank you very much!

Awesome, thank you very much!

Awesome, thank you very much!

Awesome, thank you very much!

I’m the cameraman/videographer in the family, and after family vacations and holidays I get a real kick out of organizing the photos and video clips shot along the way into DVDs that can be shared. My PC is several years old and large files slow it down to a snail’s pace, but Corel VideoStudio lets me do everything I want to editing, formatting and recombining my clips. If someone will remind me, I intend to write an addendum after I try the software out on the NEXT computer, which I hope will have the processing power to do all of the above at more than a snail’s pace.

Serif PhotoPlus X4 is inevitably compared to Photoshop, and while I like Photoshop for its capabilities and the bells and whistles that can be applied AFTER you have the photo you want (like slideshows), I find Serif PhotoPlus quite useful at a significantly lower price. PhotoPlus is easy and intuitive to use for many of the most common tasks such as cropping and red-eye correction. As a photo amateur I must admit I’m just beginning to learn the more detailed and complicated features that use layers to add and subtract and correct only portions of the photo.

The Pinnacle Studio 18 is not as easy to use as NCH VideoPad, and doesn’t have as many features as Photoshop Elements, but it is much closer in price to the least-expensive video software around, with more features in terms of in-program editing features and templates. It also handles 6 tracks and handles files faster with 64 bit framework, and they throw in 17 royalty-free tracks to keep you out of copyright danger.

As expected.nI’ve used lots of switches over the years and this one is every bit as good as the inexpensive ones from Micro-center.