First look at Camtasia Studio Version 5.0

Here’s a Sneak peek at the Camtasia Studio v5 ahead of its official release which is on October 9, 2007.
As everyone will be knowing, its a product from TechSmith and Camtasia Studio is a Screen Recorder and Video Editor using which one can easily record screen to create compelling training, demo, and presentation videos.

I already had Camtasia Studio v4 on my system, Camtasia Studio v5 got installed on a separate location without disturbing the previous installation. The installation was smooth as usual.

There are some very cool features in this version. Major focus of Camtasia Studio 5 is, whether a novice or an expert, could create a professional and polished screencast with even less effort and in less time. As you start the Studio, you can see a modified welcome window to add options for tutorial videos and a recent project list and also the icons and graphics are updated giving the v5 a new look.

Now talking of its new features, Camtasia Recorder looks a little different.

Several new features are added for the recording process. One of the feature is Snap-to-App feature. What the Snap-to-App feature does is regardless of what application is opened during recording, it will immediately be snapped to the predefined recording size so it is always viewable and in frame. Snap-to-App also applies to the mouse cursor, if you pause a recording and in between your mouse cursor has been moved, and as soon as you resume recording, mouse cursor snaps back to last position. Smart feature!

Also added a sizing method to keep applications centered and consistent, during the recording process. And cross-hairs added to enhance the way selections are made and many more changes.

Next feature is related to editing, now you can easily produce videos for the web, iPod, CD, or your blog with the click of a button, as all of these are provided as presets. The new Project Settings gives a real time preview of what your video will look like after scaling it.

Also 7 new transitions like cube rotate, glow, fade to black etc are added and 3D Edge option to callouts have been added making the screencasts much more better. The option to produce a single SWF file (ExpressShow template). Added a slider to set the Zoom-n-Pan speed.

ExpressShow - is a sleek staging and playback format for Camtasia Studio screencasts that gives the viewer use-friendly controls and puts maximum emphasis on the content while taking up minimal screen real estate.

The ability to upload to Screencast.com or FTP without requiring a production to be completed is provided.

Next new feature is called SmartFocus.
SmartFocus enables users to create smooth automatic zoom-n-pan action with a single mouse click to focus the viewer's attention on important points of interest and to provide visual clarity when delivering screencasts inside small playback windows like blogs, on YouTube or via the
Apple iPod.So these are some of the new features of Camtasia Studio v5. Besides this , some other are:
When saving a project, there's an option for copying or moving all files associated with the project to a folder.
Improved stability, with improving the code.
Editing at 30FPS.
AutoSave -Projects are automatically saved every 10 minutes.

So overall, a better product , a better experience to get get a better screencast with less effort, even a novice will be able to produce a quality screencast using Camtasia Studio v5.
If you purchase Camtasia Studio 4 now, you will be sent a key that works for Camtasia Studio v5 (it will work with Camtasia Studio v4 too). That means you'll get a free upgrade on October 9 when Camtasia Studio v5 comes out.
You can also see these new features screencasts at http://visuallounge.techsmith.com