Capture with SnagIt and Camtasia

Screen capture and video capture of the screen? Is it possible and how do I do it?

TechSmith have two programs to do just that. There are of course others, but today I will focus on TechSmith.

SnagIt 8	Camtasia Studio 4
Capture still images and records video.	Captures video with own optimized codec. Still images if you purchase SnagIt bundle.
Very good options for editing your images.	Created to capture video and make movies of output.
Outputs to all common image formats, and .AVI for videos. You can choose codec for output.	Final output includes MPEG, AVI, Flash, RealMedia, QuickTime and executable. You have full control of output settings.

SnagIt - $39.95

SnagIt is a world known and reputable screen capture program. I love it - in addition to capture images (as you can do with alt+print screen) you can do lots to the final image. You can change perspective, add edge effects, highlight text, add arrows, add callouts and more.

If you send screen dumps in emails or make user documentation this a must-have tool.

Camtasia Studio 4 - $299

Charged with good hope after using SnagIt I downloaded Camtasia and decided to try it out.

I expected to find a tool to make videos as easy as SnagIt makes screen shots. But no, I did not manage to do anything usable with Camtasia. I can zoom and pan, but did not manage to do anything else with it.

If you want to make something out of a capture - look into Photodex ProShow first. I have already blogged about it.