Editing Programs for After the Hunt
Editing Programs for After the Hunt
So you’ve taken the video camera along on your hunting trips and have captured some good stuff. Now what? There are a miriad of software programs available for you to edit your footage and turn it into an award winning hunting show……or, maybe just a cool video that you and your friends can watch and enjoy. Depending on what type of computer you have (MAC or PC based) and your level of experience with manipulating video, you’ll want to do a little research to find the right program for you. We’ve taken on some of that workload for you in this review. In this article we’re examining two PC based programs that are affordable, readily available online and relatively easy to work with. One has even been developed with the hunter in mind. Our goal here is not to speak about these programs in complicated terms like “Batch Processing” and “ISO Output” but rather to examine how easily the average hunter can dump his/her video into these programs and come away with video that looks like it was edited in a more professional manner. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the price and what kind of bang you get for your buck!
Note to first time Video Editors: Both of these programs require a Firewire cable to capture the video from camcorder to computer. Some of the newer camcorders capture the video directly to SD cards and those will require a card reader to capture the video.
Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus
Minimum Computer Requirements for using this program:
512 MB RAM
1 GB Memory and a DVD drive for program installation
Graphics Card
Sound Card
As with many software programs, there is already a newer version available for this program (Version 16). A few more bells and whistles will come with the newer version but overall, we found Movie Edit Pro 15 to be an excellent choice for editing video.
Interface: The interface is the screen that you’ll be working with to do all your editing on your video. We found the interface on Movie Edit Pro 15 to be quite good and relatively easy to use. If you’ve used editing programs before, you should have zero problems figuring out what and where all the features are. If you’re new to using an editing program however, you may
need some time with the program before exercising it’s full set of features.
Cool Features: Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus has a ton of cool features (click here for complete list ). At $89.99 (which we found even cheaper on Amazon) this editing program is packed with features that would impress even the most seasoned video editor.
Here are some of the fetaures that we found extremely useful to us in the world of hunting video:
Picture-in-Picture Effects: We’ve seen editing programs that give you cool ways to move between two scenes in the video but Movie Edit Pro 15 allows you to place a second video window within the main movie and customize its size and position. This is especially handy when you want to show both the hunter and quarry at the same time (ex. hunter drawing bow in one window and deer in the other, all at the same time to maintain continuity of the hunt)
Chroma Keying or Bluescreen effect: You can manipulate the background of your videos with this effect. Kind of like the weatherman
on the daily news with the weather map behind him, you can record your video and place another background in during the edit. Useful for possibly an intro segment on your hunt when you want it to look a little more professional.
MultiCam Editing: This feature is really cool for hunters. Lets say you used two cameras to record the same hunt and want to select
the best scenes. Movie Edit Pro 15 allows you to do just that by keeping track of both cameras in the editing process.
Pros: Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus worked very well for us and we did not have any “crash” issues or problems with the program freezing up on us. It truly enables an amateur video editor, with some degree of familiarity with the editing process, to produce professional looking videos without much fuss.
For a price tag under $100,this is huge.
Cons: The upload quality to YouTube was lacking on our first try but we figured we could play around with the quality settings to adjust this.
For a complete list of features on Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus (as well as the latest version 16) visit: http://www.magix.com/us/movie-edit-pro/plus/
We found this program online for well under the retail here
We also found a YouTube Review of this program here:
and here:
Campbell Outdoor Challenge Video Editor
The folks at Campbell Outdoor Challenge have developed an editing program that caters to the outdoor videographer. While more of an introductory type program, this video editor software is packed with features that resonate with hunters like Wildlife sounds and menus. Designed by hunters, this program allows you to capture, edit, and produce your video in a super easy fashion. So simple in fact, that it only comes with a “Quick Start Guide” that is actually a folded up piece of paper. How’s that for simple?
Minimum Computer Requirements for using this program:
Windows XP/Windows Vista/ Windows 7
Intel Pentium IV 1.6Ghz CPU or higher, or equivalent AMD processor
4 GB DDR RAM recommended
Interface: The interface screen for this program seemed very intuitive and easy to understand. We liked the fact that our video appeared large in the upper right and that allowed us to see how our editing changes look immediately. You’re not going to get the picture-in-picture effect or Multicamera option with this program but the fact that this program is tailored to the hunter deserves a great deal of merit.
Instant Upload to YouTube: Want to share your videos with the hunting community? The Campbell Outdoor Challenge Video Editor allows for quick and easy upload to the video hosting site YouTube.
Pros: Very easy to use for the casual editor and contains features that are specifically designed for hunting videos.
Cons: The $129 price tag does not give you the vast professional tools that Movie Edit Pro does, but it’s easier to use and does have the Outdoor related features that no other program on the market has.
For more information or to purchase this Software, visit: https://www.campbellcameras.com/p-361-campbell-outdoor-challenge-video-editor.aspx
Youtube informational:
Summary: Depending on your level of experience, these two programs represent affordable editing options to preserve your hunting heritage. For the more experienced editor we’d recommend Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus (or actually the latest version 16 now!) because of its host of professional features like picture-in-picture and the Multicamera Editing. If you’re just starting out however, we wouldn’t hesitate to check out the Campbell Outdoor Challenge Video Editor. It is fast and simple to use to get your hunts from the camera to the DVD in no time. Either way, keep on preserving those hunting traditions on video!
