Cam Studio Pro Review

 It’s funny how you hear the phrase, “a picture speaks a thousand words” and though that is true in most cases, for most people a picture just won’t do the job by itself anymore. We have come along so far in the world with technology that we have taken that one picture and eventually grouped it with some more pictures with a little bit more quality and some other tweaks here and there and here comes the best part about…. We even added audio to it. So not only do we see pictures but we have a voice to those shifting pictures and through all the years of hard work of just being able to do that we gave it a short and simple name…Videos.

  Now when we all think about the Internet and when it first started paving its way there weren’t a lot of videos to look at pertaining to anything online. It was just a lot of information and yes, PICTURES. But if you shift forward to now you’ll see that no matter what  information you look up on the internet about you will see…VIDEOS. Now videos are not necessarily a bad thing depending on what type of videos there are. Videos have changed are society in a way that it has became a tool of instant gratification; How you may be asking? Well let’s say for example when you go online, do you see a small box pop up every time asking if it can show us a video?

No. Usually it starts to play automatically and that is partly because video engages most of our senses. Pictures for eyes sound for our ears and just about the whole body if it comes down to do-it-yourself videos with learning the salsa to knitting to finger painting or learning how to speak another language. Which is personally why I am glad for the creation of YouTube because of the millions of people it has on it daily making videos on pretty much any topic you can come up with and others looking for those videos to get the help they need or to just go on it for  entertainment purposes. I’ve come to think of YouTube as (don’t laugh when I say this) a website where people our paying it forward in a sense through videos if you think about in a deeper aspect.
   YouTube is not the only website know for its videos you have websites such as Facebook , Twitter, Skype, Yahoo, Google, and basically any website you can think of  in just about any place you can think of in this world where people have access to watching videos; Videos has become such a big part to any industry it’s like free gold for all in a sense that anyone can have it, it’s just as simple as making sure you download Adobe Flash Player which is basically the #1 leader in watching any videos online but I’m sure that there are other flash players such as QuickTime or what not that you can use as well. But if you can just see that just the use of flash players themselves should serve as enough proof that videos have become a part of all our lives. Some more proof is when you go to any store and visit the electronics department and let’s say you’re going camera shopping. Do you stop to take a look at all the cameras and the description of each one and notice that pretty much 90% of them has somewhere in there that it can record video for up to a certain amount of time?  I just wanted to throw that out there as a little food for thought.

  Since we are on the subject about videos I wanted to talk and give a little bit of information about an Internet Product that I had came across today by the name of  

                                                      

  CamStudio is a screencasting programmed to be used for Microsoft Windows which is released as free software that you can download at www.CamStudio.org. CamStudio can basically create videos in an AVI format, which it can then convert AVI’s into flash video format embedded with SWF files. To help break down the terms a little bit more screencasting is just another term for video screen capture that contains audio narration. So to make sure we don’t get screencast confused with screenshot; Screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, whereas screencast is what I like to call a mini-movie that shows you what a computer-user is doing on their computer screen.  If you’re an Internet Marketer that has made Webinars or attended a webinar before than you can basically use that as an example of screencasting.

  Screencasting software such as CamStudio is primarily used to help demonstrate and teach the use of any software features that you may know of out there. The secondary use of screencast software is to help software developer’s show off their work to others. This can also be of use to teachers who want to make this a part of the curriculum especially for their students who are visual learners and equally useful for students who can use screencasting to record video and audio as they want to demonstrate the proper procedure to solving a problem using and interactive whiteboard and other equipment as needed.

 Screecasting software can has become more beneficial by taking the place of unclear written explanations and making it simple by taking you step by step in solving the tasks set out for you. Anybody who is a Internet marketer for example and have came across a  situation where you signed up to listen to that webinar or seminar that you’ve been waiting to listen to but couldn’t because of something else that came up I’m sure you and I are grateful for the Organizer who has chose to record those webinars or seminars and make them available on the internet through screencast for reasons such as the use of a future reference or the selling of these screencasts to people who cannot attend the event live or like I said earlier do not have the time to attend it. And think of it too in this sense when we attend these webinars or seminars we not only help generate revenue for the Organizers but  this knowledge for whatever field it is being shown in helps bring in a broader audience.

  The AVI format used in CamStudio stands for Audio Video Interleaved. AVI files can contain both audio and video data that allows audio-with-video playback, the perfect example that you can think of is DVD’s something I definitely sure all of us own in some form of fashion. SWI (also known as Shockwave Format) is an adobe flash file format which helps gives videos the ability to display entertaining animations and be able to run on any system with fast or slow network connections.

Now that I explained the terms as best as I could; when using CamStudio   you can move the cursor, launch a new program, type some text, click a few buttons, and do anything while on the computer and the coolest part is that CamStudio is able to record all of this and play back at an later time. Camstudio can also be used to develop videos to demonstrate features of a new software but can be used also for creating movies used for training purposes or any activity that requires the capture of desktop activity. You can select between a framed area capture or full desktop recording and adjust the video quality settings to reduce the file size, use custom cursors and more. Another great feature of CamStudio is that you can create a small webcam-movie within the screen capture, showing your face while you demonstrate the workings of an application which I feel definitely helps to create more of that connection between you and your audience by having a face to the voice.

Check out this video for a demonstration tutorial on CamStudio's Settings:

                               

With the overwhelming growing popularity of video and video-based sharing sites like YouTube, video is definitely the way to go when wanting to share information with an individual or audience online. Camtasia, software similar to Camstudio in some ways is actually popular because of having more functionality applications than CamStudio; but because of its price of $299, CamStudio is the best alternative to go with especially if you are a newbie who is just venturing out in the world of video making.

Pros to CamStudio:

·         

       As explained a little earlier CamStudio can not only be used for on-screen video recording of power-point presentations, but also for web-based browser activity, the capture of video recording of computer video games, and similar online video recordings.

·        With CamStudio you can record a particular region of your computer screen or the entire screen. However, you have to determine to which ones work best depending on the type of video recording project you have.

·        With the Screen and Video annotations feature in CamStudio, you can either do voice-over videos using a microphone or speakers or one with text annotations.

·        You can record 1280x720 HD quality video, however the quality of the output will depend on the type of computer you use.

·        CamStudio comes with several codec’s (Compressor and Decompressor ) which helps reduce the size of the video output file.

·        Other features included with Camstudio are a variety of cursor options including various shapes, sizes, and cursor highlight. The auto-pan feature can be useful when using “Region” video recording. This feature allows the mouse to follow the area on the screen when using the “Region” option.

 Cons to Camstudo:

·        Lack of zooming especially when recording web-browser based on-screen activity, sometimes specific areas are too small to be read on the video recording. The solution to this problem can be to use an add-on called “Zoom it”. It may not be as effective as the one you’ll find in Camtasia, but it works well and gets the job done.

·        The other downfall to CamStudio is the AVI format 2GB file size limit. If you do not customize the settings in CamStudio to optimize video recording, you can end up having a huge file size for a short video that is to say the least five minutes long. The best thing to do at this point is to keep videos between five and ten minutes long if possible.

Here’s another video for you to look at that shows an overview of CamStudio:

                              

   As I mentioned before Camstudio is free software that you can download by visiting their main site at www.CamStudio.org. Make sure though you download CamStudio Version 2.0 under the tools link as this version loads the easiest.

Steps to take with CamStudio once installed:

     Make video adjustments. Open CamStudio and click on the options button on the top. A menu will drop down and you’ll see video options at the top. Adjust your video to compress by using one of the listed programs. You can download others from websites or you can leave it on the default settings. ( stick with default)

    

Choose video format. You have the choice of two video formats that we discussed earlier, AVI, a standard video format that most people can easily open or SWF, a format that you use if you want to publish your file to a website. Some people feel that SWF is better for web publication because you don’t have to embed it onto your site.

 Adjust video Settings. To plainly put, if you want best results set your set your setting as: Compression  Microsoft Video 1

·        configure 1.0

·        Quality 60

·        Key Frames 20

·        Capture Frames 50

·        Playback  Rate 30

·        Max Frame Rate 1

Adjust Audio Options: Adjust Audio Options so that you can either record via a microphone or by using computer’s speakers. The latter if recording a game or some program that has sound, the sound will be included in your video. CamStudio’s default is to have the sound turned off.

Enable Auto Pan Speed. There are program options under the region tab. Select Fixed region keyboard shortcuts:

                    Example

·        Record-F2

·        Next-F5

·        Previous-F6

·        Cancel-F4

·        Show/hide-None

      You are essentially ready and can begin recording. Before you do though you can a few more changes such as: How your cursor looks- Pan in and Pan out and even control the speed the camera moves. You can adjust whether you can record a full screen or simply a portion of your screen. Fixed region works best if you are making a video for YouTube.

Hopefully these steps will prove to be useful as you are learning to use CamStudio. If you find yourself needing more help CamStudio comes with a built in help file where you just can simply click the “Help” tab and get the answers you need.

  This pretty much covers everything I have to say about CamStudio, as an Internet marketing newbie I definitely encourage you to just go ahead and visit the website at www.CamStudio.org, download the product, get crafty with it and make some things happen with this software, you have nothing to lose and all to gain with this product. Please just promise yourself that you will try everything possible with this software before going online and making a review or blog about it like I’m doing right now.

  I see so many people who will by a product online use it just a little and not to its fullest extent, wait for the first problem to come up with the software and quickly go online to write a bad review on it and that’s not the way to go especially if the foot was in the other shoe and you were the one who created a software to the best of your abilities for people to use only to have some of them trash talk your product with absolutely nothing good to say at all about your product.

  Now unfortunately that’s just part of life when it comes to technology and for the fact of the matter is, different things work for different people and not everything made will ever be 100% perfected to the do the job. This is why you see software like Adobe, Camstudio, Camtasia, Windows and etc. constantly make either monthly or yearly updates to their software because the creators of these programs realize too that as time move ahead and the use of technology starts to advanced they have to keep their software updated not only to keep the money coming in but because when you make it your mission to give back to society through any useful skills that you have you know that there will always be more expected out of you and nothing less.

  So if you are someone who has products that you would like to promote and that you know society is looking for do not be surprised or upset over some of the reviews you’ll find about your product. Think of it as lesson part of marketing products. One more thing I would like to share with you about some other key benefits with screencast software (a.k.a. How-to-videos) is this:

1.     You can learn at your own pace.

2.     You can review what you want to review.

3.     You don’t have to fly half way around the world for training.

4.     You can follow along while doing the task you are learning.

5.     The content is consistent for everyone who takes the course.

Now when you are thinking of next time making a video for whenever you are teaching or wanting to promote a product remember these key points of the competitive edge videos have:

Videos…

·        Personally engages your customers with your products.

·        Dramatically improves you SEO.

·        Significantly increases your conversion rates.

·        Appreciably reduces customers.

·        Teach, Train, and Sell.

·        Builds a rapport with your audience.

·        Instantly become more personable.

·        Powerfully promotes your brand.

·        If not done but are from your competitors you could lose potential clients.

·        Help with not having to type anything for a change.

·        Help you demonstrate your expertise.

·        Help you show your creativity.

·        Are fun.

·        Can show your human side by posting a not-quite-perfect video.

·        May be easier for you to retain the attention of your targeted audience.

·        Help you develop a level a trust beyond what’s possible in writing alone.

·        Is an inexpensive marketing approach.

·        Help you show that you’re keeping up with technology.

·        Can Help you experience increased visibility in the search engines

·        Can give your audience a way to benefit from your knowledge passively (it’s a lot easier to watch a video than to read a screen of text!).

·        Can provide targeted training.

·        Help you become more memorable.

·        If made consistently can build a different audience than you have through your blog.

·        Can be very effective to use while you learn how to get paid to make articles.

·        Help you more to “show” instead of “tell”.

·        Can help you reach more of your targeted audience.

·        Help you establish yourself as an expert in whatever niche you’re promoting in.

·        Help get people to come to your site or blog more frequently.

·        Help you tap into the emotions of your audience.

·        Help make it easy for your viewers to pass on your message.

·        Help you to make announcements, share news and offer special deals.

·        Is entertaining for you viewers.

Of course I can continue and name plenty of more other benefits to screencast videos but I’ll leave it to you to go now to www.CamStudio.org , download the free software and get started making screencast videos today. Besides visiting the website, check out more videos on YouTube dealing with the CamStudio Software if you want to get more help with the use of the software or to get a few creative ideas from others who have gotten the software.