Railfan Technology > Video Editing Software Recommendations

I've got a lot of rail related videos from the 1984 to 1999 and would like to share. Recently through advice here on TO I purchased a Clear Click 2 device. My videos were recorded on three Sony 8mm camcorders. I've transferred the first few minutes of a video now onto the Clear Click 2.  I understand that I now need video editing software. First I'm a senior and NOT computer savvy so I need something easy that hopefully I can understand. Any help with suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/23 18:59 by srman.

Videopad is inexpensive and is pretty easy to use.

I use Final Cut on the Mac.

Posted from Android

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Hi srman.

When I first started editing my videos (circa 1999) I found Corel's 'EasyMedia Creator' software to be inexpensive and VERY easy/intuitive to use.  I literally jumped right into editing videos as soon as I installed it.  It's since been upgraded a number of times and is now called VideoStudio Pro.  Here's a link (hopefully Todd will allow it  :)  ):

https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/products/videostudio/pro/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxofUgf31_AIVy8mUCR0QvgAoEAAYAiAAEgLJe_D_BwE

Search the video archives under my username to see some examples.

Hope this helps.

J

Having been through iterations of the softwares like Sony, and MicroSoft's I've lately come to use the YouTube facility.
It should be free, and from what I have seen has the necessary tools. They are not going to be any clumsier than the others', like clip.
The nicest feature to my eye is that the editing is done in the cloud, so you don't have to worry too much about storage---- video consumes a lot,
or the speed/quality/memory of your own PC.

I presume like most of us, you just want to reminisce over what you shot, and perhaps share with a few people.

I should add that youtube has become the standard go-to-resource on how-to.
So there should be all kinds of useful support there. But, I just jumped in having had some basic experience. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 21:10 by arrowspatial.

The editing software that comes free with Windows 7 seemed to work 
pretty good. If you have and old PC with that on it you might start there.
The one that come with Windows 10 is a little less friendly.  (where I am at)
These are under Video Editor in the pull down (or up) 
For Basic Editing where you splice short clips together and add basic
graphics, sound and text it might be good to start there and see what is
important and what you need more sophistication to do.
I'm a dummy and have done limited editing so this may be good or bad advice
but it's free.

inyosub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The editing software that comes free with Windows 7
> seemed to work pretty good. If you have and old PC with that on
> it you might start there. The one that come with Windows 10
> is a little less friendly.  (where I am at)
>
> These are under Video Editor in the pull down (or up)
> For Basic Editing where you splice short clips together and
> add basic graphics, sound and text it might be good to start
> there and see what is important and what you need more
> sophistication to do.
>
> I'm a dummy and have done limited editing so this
> may be good or bad advice but it's free.

You're no dummy and it's great advice, actually. Around the time Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) were released in the mid-2000s, video editors had become mature enough, even the free ones. That would be Movie Maker for Windows, and iMovie for Mac.

If Movie Maker is not included with Windows 7, it will have to be downloaded as part of "Windows Live" package, and since it's obsolete, some sleuthing is required to obtain a copy. I agree with you that the Windows 10 version ("Video Editor") is less intuitive than Movie Maker, but it's possible to run Movie Maker under Windows 10.

So I second your advice, and recommend giving a free editor a try first. If more sophisticated video filters are needed, then a commercial editor can be purchased.