Just wondering who uses what to edit their videos? I have ordered a copy of Cyberlink Power Director 15, but it seems that Lightworks is available for free? Presumably it’ll be heftily cut down version, does anyone out there use it? Is it worth paying for editing software or does the free stuff tend be good enough?

Got a fairly up to date iPad? iMovie will probably be better.

Rachel

What kind of videos are you wanting to edit? Where is your footage from? Do you want to grade also? Do you need to treat audio/music? How experienced are you with whatever you’ve been using up to now? I could just say buy Premiere Pro, but, as allthegear says, iMovie or the Windows equivalent might suit your needs. DaVinci Resolve is an excellent free option, if a little overwhelming for a first time editor.

I use Windows Movie Maker and its ok. Its not massively advanced but it’s good for chopping videos into smaller videos.

[video]https://youtu.be/zOcUOVmw6Zo[/video]

This was butchered with movie maker.

Lightworks if you want lots of features.
VideoPad if you want simple

GoPro studio is pretty good, not sure if you need a GP to use it.

Windows Movie Maker was good, but it’s no longer supported so you’ll need to find a hooky version.

I have professional videos edited (and filmed) for me by a team using multiple cameras and separately recorded sound but I recently bought Power Director 15 for my own use in order to string together some very basic single camera talking head shots and separately recorded sound for some preliminary samples and personal projects on a PC. It was an impulse purchase (!) without seeking more knowledgeable advice and I’m finding it quite fiddly and fussy to use. Where I have sound and video on the same recording already (e.g. DSLR with direct external mic input), it’s way faster and more intuitive editing on iPad using iMovie. You can buy an adapter to connect SD card to iPad and it works well (although there are other ways of doing it too if your media’s cloud based). I have lots of scripting and presenting experience but no tech editing, so I guess it’s a question of how complex a task you have (or whether you have the time to learn, which I don’t). For speed and simplicity sake, my vote would go for iMovie on an iPad if it’s basic splicing and titling or YouTube upload you’re after (although I’m sure there are many on here who use iMovie for more complex tasks although I don’t think you can accurately sync separately recorded speech and video in iMovie?). Power Director seems to have lots of features and lots of naff transitions and effects. If you’re not getting into different formats and 3D etc, you probably won’t use 99% of it (I don’t, but my needs are probably very different).