[EnglishBob]

Wife got a camcorder for Christmas, anyone have any experience editing videos?

Any software recommendations?

[shuttertalk]

Not very much... just with the basic windows movie maker and also imovie that everyone has...

I think software wise it's pretty much the same with photography - best of breed / industry standard product would be adobe premiere but you've also got cheaper alternatives e.g. ulead, pinnacle, etc.

[matthew]

I've done a tiny bit, editing some of the video from my P&S as well as trying to put together some multimedia/slideshows from still photos. All I've used is Apple's iMovie, but I was very happy with how it worked.

[Kombisaurus]

I'm trying to get my head around Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and After Effects CS4 at the moment. They both have an immense number of functions, but I have a lot of learning ahead of me. They are also quite resource-hungry (I'm using Vista x64 with 8Gb RAM and a 2.6Ghz Core 2 Duo and wouldn't want to be on anything less).

If you are on Mac then Final Cut Pro is the benchmark video editing app, but like Premiere there is a huge learning curve. Of course iMovie on the Mac has less functions but is still very useful and a lot easier to use and comes bundled with the OS.

On the PC platform, for something that is useful without being overwhelming I can recommend Cyberlink PowerDirector (and PowerProducer) for quick and straightforward editing and authoring to DVD. There is also the Nero Vision suite which some people at my work use and like.

I hear Sony Vegas Pro recommended a lot as well, but haven't used it myself. I might have to do a bit more investigating.

[Kombisaurus]

I just downloaded the trial for Vegas pro and having a bit of a look at it now, it does look really good. It is a lot less resource-hungry than the Adobe tools too, and 8Gb of RAM seems more than enough. It would probably run fine on 4Gb or even 2Gb.
The only things so far that really seems missing from Vegas Pro are the motion stabilisation and tracking functions that are in After Effects. These are fantastic (although could be slightly better implemented by Adobe too).

Vegas Pro is pretty expensive though (nowhere near as expensive as Premiere Pro and After Effects, but I get to use a license from my work for those products so I'm not out of pocket for them).
Still it seems to be really quite comprehensive and supports some very cool stuff like burning blu-ray movies in full HD and mixing 5.1 audio (I have a Zoom H2 audio recorder that can record 4-channel surround). It is also more of an "all in one" solution than the Adobe products which require a number of specialised tools (Soundbooth, Encore, Premiere Pro, After Effects) to cover all the aspects of video production.

Still, I'm just starting out with all these tools so take my opinions with a grain of salt...

[EnglishBob]

Thanks for all teh information and suggestions guys

[brucemendes]

Hi to all,
i read comment and have some information regarding that so wanna share with you....so its about video editing in that camcorder software...here is that info...When you render a movie that you have created or write it out to hard disk, you will definitely feel the speed of the machine....thanks for sharing the link...

[gbh46]

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Thanks for all teh information and suggestions guys

This is a very late reply as I only joined the group today.
I would imagine you will be sorted by now but I recommend Sony Vegas.
The pro version is very good but so are the other versions. If you are still interested try going to Sony creative software site and download a free 30 day trial of any which you might find useful.
I used to use Adobe Premiere at work which could be very problematic, since I retired and have to spend my own money I find Sony Vegas to be much cheaper, very stable and once you get to know the prog you can do almost anything you like with it.

[kNox]

There are simpler ways than Sony Vegas, but few of them are as good. It takes some getting used to, but yeah, it has consistently been at the top of the video editing solutions for a long while.