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Final Cut Pro X [Main editor used by Project GoPro] – If you have a Mac, this is the go to. It’s simple and intuitive, perfect for GoPro and DSLR edits [ Compatible with our LUT filters ] 2. Learn about the best GoPro video editors for Windows and Mac (and Linux). In this post, you'll learn about your options for great GoPro editing software. I'll cover both free and premium programs – for both Windows and Mac. The list includes the best options for editing your GoPro video – according to user ratings and sales volume. GOPRO PHOTOGRAPHY Photography Software Photography lessons Photography studios GoPro diy GoPro camera Camera Gear GoPro Video Video Editing Forward GoPro Studio is a good platform when looking for GoPro software.
Edit Video on Your PC
The Best Video Editing Software of 2018 Whether you're a weekend GoPro shooter or a full-time video professional, you need editing software that's powerful but easy to use. Here's how the best. This GoPro editing software allows you to crop, resize, merge and sync videos. The toolkit has a lot of features, there are real-time settings, as well as background encoding options so that you can make a perfect video. Learn about the best GoPro video editors for Windows and Mac (and Linux). In this post, you'll learn about your options for great GoPro editing software. I'll cover both free and premium programs – for both Windows and Mac. The list includes the best options for editing your GoPro video – according to user ratings and sales volume.
Nothing makes an impression like moving pictures with sound. That's why digital video continues to grow in importance online. Couple that trend with the ever-increasing availability of devices capable of high-resolution video recording—phones, GoPros, DSLRs—and the case for ever-more powerful video editing software becomes clear. Further, the software must be usable by nonprofessionals, and it has to keep up with newer formats such as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) and 360-degree VR video, and it has to be able to handle 4K and higher resolution.
Increasingly, new capabilities trickle down from professional-level software to the consumer category. That's a good thing for nonprofessional movie editors, since the more consumer-oriented software tends to make easier procedures that can sometimes be pretty tricky in the pro-level software. Read on for a survey of the latest trends in video editing software along with our top picks in the field.
Multicam, Motion Tracking, and Yet More Motion
Advanced abilities continue to make their way into accessible, affordable, and consumer-friendly video editing software as each new generation of software is released. For example, multicam editing, which lets you switch among camera angles of the same scene shot with multiple video cameras, used to be a feature relegated to pro-level software. Now this and many other advanced effects are available in programs designed for use by nonprofessional enthusiasts.
Another impressive effect that has made its way into consumer-level video editing software is motion tracking, which lets you attach an object or effect to something moving in your video. You might use it to put a blur over the face of someone you don't want to show up in your video. You specify the target face, and the app takes care of the rest, tracking the face and moving the effect to follow it. This used to be the sole province of special effects software such as Adobe After Effects. Corel VideoStudio was the first of the consumer products to include motion tracking, and it still leads the pack in the depth and usability of its motion-tracking tool, though several others now include the capability.
The 4K Video Factor
Support for 4K video source content has become pretty standard in video editing software, but the support varies among the products. For example, some but not all of the applications can import Sony XAVC and XAVC-S formats, which are used by Sony's popular DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, camcorders, and professional video cameras. The same holds true for the H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. Most of the applications here now can import and export HEVC, though there are still a few holdouts.
360-Degree VR Support
Several of the products here (Adobe Premiere Elements is a notable exception) still support 3D video editing if that's your thing, though the this has been replaced by 360-degree VR footage like that shot by the Samsung Gear 360 as the current home-theater fad. As is often the case, our Editors' Choice, CyberLink PowerDirector was the first product in this group to offer support for this new kind of video media.
Other programs have jumped on board with 360 VR support, including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and Magix Movie Edit Pro. Support varies, with some apps including 360-compatible titles, stabilization, and motion tracking. PowerDirector is notable for including those last two. Final Cut offers a useful tool that removes the camera and tripod from the image, often an issue with 360-degree footage.
Video Editing 101
Of course, none of the extras matter if an app can't do the most basic editing tasks. At this point, however, all of the products included here do a good job of letting you join, trim, and split video clips. They also let you make use of special effects such as animated transitions, picture-in-picture (PiP), chroma-key (the technique that lets you place a subject against any background, often known as green screening), and filters that enhance colors or apply creative effects and distortions. With most of them you can add a multitude of timeline tracks that can accommodate video clips, effects, audio, and text overlays.
A tool coming to the latest versions of video editing applications is support for seamless transitions. Picture a scene showing people at a beach, and suddenly the sky zooms in and your in Rome or Paris, but it looks like you're in the same place because the transition glued the two scenes together using the sky. There are plenty of other examples of seamless transition; this magnificent video shows a good selection of them, and is partly responsible for starting the trend.
Color, LUTs and CLUTs
One of the capabilities that has been making its way into consumer-level video editing software is more-detailed color grading. Color wheels, curves, and histograms give editors control over the intensity of every shade. Related to this is support for LUTs (lookup tables), also known as CLUTs (color lookup tables). This staple of pro-level software lets you quickly change the look of a video to give it a specific mood. For example, think of the dark blue look of thriller movies like The Revenant. You can download LUTs for free from several sites or use those included with some video software to give your video a specific look. One well-known LUT type is the kind that can make a daytime scene look like it was shot at night.
Where the Action Is
Many video editing apps now include tools that cater to users of action cameras such as the GoPro Hero7 Black. For example, several offer automated freeze-frame along with speedup, slowdown, and reverse time effects. CyberLink PowerDirector's Action Camera Center pulls together freeze frame with stabilization, slo-mo, and fish-eye correction, and color correction for underwater footage. Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium includes the third-party NewBlue ActionCam Package of effects. And Wondershare Filmora lets you subscribe to new effect packs on an ongoing basis.
Titles That Zing
I've been seeing a lot of attention paid to creating title effects in the applications over the past year. Apple Final Cut Pro X has added 3D title creation, which is pretty spiffy, letting you extrude 2D titles and rotate them on three axes. Corel VideoStudio in its latest version also adds 3D Titling, though not as powerful as Apple's. PowerDirector's Title Designer offers transparency, gradient color, border, blur level, and reflection in titles; Magix has impressive title templates, complete with animations. Premiere Elements offers a nifty title effect in which your video fills the text characters, and Corel recently followed suit in VideoStudio 2019. Look for an application that lets you edit titles in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode, so that you can type, format, and time it right over the video preview.
Gathering Speed
Video editing is one of the most computing-intensive activities around, so you'll want the best laptop or desktop you can afford if you're serious about cutting your own movies. Most applications help speed up the editing process by creating a proxy file of lower resolution, so that normal editing and previewing aren't slowed down by the huge full-resolution files.
Particularly intensive is the process of rendering your finished product into a standard video file that will by playable on the target device of choice, be that an HDTV, a laptop, or a smartphone. Most of the software can take advantage of your computer's graphics processor to speed this up. Be sure to check the performance section in each review linked here to see how speedy or slow the application is. In rendering speed testing, CyberLink and Pinnacle have been my perennial champs.
Other measures of performance include startup time and simple stability. Again, video editing is a taxing activity for any computer, involving many components. In the past, video editing programs took longer than most other apps to start up, and unexpected shutdowns were unfortunately common, even in top apps from top developers such as Adobe and Apple. The stability situation has greatly improved, but the complexity of the process, which increases as more powerful effects are added, means crashes will likely never be fully eliminated, and they often raise their ugly heads after a program update, as I found with the latest version of Pinnacle Studio.
Free Video Editing Software
If you don't want to invest a lot of money and effort into your video editing exploits, there are a few free options. Of course, if you use a Mac, the excellent iMovie comes with it. For PC users, Windows 10's Photos app (as of the Fall Creators Update) lets you join, trim, and even add background music, 3D animated effects, and titles to video.
There are also some free video apps on the Windows Store, including Movie Moments, PowerDirector Mobile, Movie Maker, and Magix Movie Edit Touch. Some of these are quite basic, but the Magix app is fairly capable, with clip joining, transitions, and effects, in a very touch-friendly interface.
Free video editing software often comes with legal and technical limitations, however. Some widely used codecs require licensing fees on the part of the software maker, meaning they can't offer free software that can handle these standard file formats. That said, the impressive open-source Shotcut does a lot of the same things that the paid applications in this roundup do, including things like chroma-keying and picture-in-picture. Shotcut is completely open-source and free, while another free option, Lightworks has paid options that remove a 720p output resolution limit. Note also that both Shotcut and Lightworks run on Linux as well as Windows and Mac.
What About Apple?
Though Mac users don't have the sheer number of software choices available for PCs, Apple fans interested in editing video are well served, by four products in particular. At the entry level, the surprisingly capable and enjoyable-to-use iMovie comes free with every Mac sold since at least 2011. iMovie only offers two video tracks, but does good job with chroma-keying, and its Trailers feature makes it easy to produce slick, Hollywood-style productions.
In the midrange, there's Adobe Premiere Elements, which is cross-platform between Macs and PCs, and offers a lot more features and lots of help with creating effects. Professionals and prosumers have powerful, though pricey options in Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro. Final Cut is a deceptively simple application that resembles iMovie in its interface and ease of use, but it offers massively deep capabilities, and many third-party apps integrate with it for even more power. It also makes excellent use of the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, as shown in photo above. Premiere Pro uses a more traditional timeline and adds a large ecosystem of companion apps and plug-ins. It also excels in collaboration features.
Download Gopro Videos To Mac
Audio Editing
We still live in the days of talkies, so you want to be able to edit the audio in your digital moves as well as the images. Most of the products included here offer canned background music, and many, such as Pinnacle Studio, can even tailor the soundtrack to the exact length of your movie. All of these programs can separate audio and video tracks, and most can clean up background noise and add environmental audio effects such as concert hall reverb. A couple of the products have an auto-ducking feature, which lowers background music during dialog—a definite pro-level plus.
What's Not Here
There are more video editing software applications than we can fit into this roundup of the best options, which includes only software rated three stars and higher. The best known among them is probably Vegas Movie Studio, which was recently acquired by Magix from Sony. Sony's product used a very cluttered interface that more resembled high-end professional video editing software from the early days of the craft. Magix has made some progress in simplifying it and bringing it up to par with the competition, but more work is needed for it to be included here.
Another program, VSDC Video Editor Pro, simply has too outdated an interface, making common tasks difficult. Longtime pro video editors will note the absence of Avid Media Composer, which is simply too unwieldy for PCMag's primarily consumer audience. There are a couple of more interesting applications—NCH VideoPad and AVS Video Editor among them—that we simply haven't tested yet.
The Finish Line
The video editing application you choose depends on your budget, the equipment you're using, and how serious you are. Fortunately, you're spoiled for choice with the products available. Peruse our in-depth reviews of enthusiast-level video editing software reviews linked below to see which is the right one for you.
One final note about the features table at the top of this story: Check marks represent differentiating, above-the-call-of-duty features, rather than essential ones. So, just because Nero Video and Wondershare Filmora don't have any checks, it doesn't mean they're not good choices. In fact, both offer decent basic editing on a budget.
Best Video Editing Software Featured in This Roundup:
Adobe Premiere Pro CC Review
MSRP: $19.99Pros: Clear, flexible interface. Lots of organizational tools. Responsive speed. Ultimate power in video editing. Rich ecosystem of video production apps. Excellent stabilization. Unlimited multi-cam angles.Cons: No keyword tagging for media. Some techniques require additional applications such as After Effects or SpeedGrade.Bottom Line: An expansive professional-level digital video editing program, Premiere Pro CC has everything today's pro video editor needs, particularly when it comes to collaboration.Read ReviewCorel VideoStudio Ultimate Review
MSRP: $99.99Pros: Wide selection of fun video-creation tools. Clear, simple interface. Fast rendering. Support for 360-degree VR, 4K Ultra HD, and 3D media. Multipoint Motion tracking. Multicam editing. HTML5 video page creation. Stop-motion tool.Cons: No keyword tagging for media.Bottom Line: Corel VideoStudio remains one of the most feature-packed consumer video editing packages around. The 2019 update adds powerful color-grading tools, seamless transitions, and text masks.Read ReviewCyberLink PowerDirector Review
MSRP: $129.99Pros: Fast rendering. Clear interface. Loads of effects. The most 360-degree video capabilities of any video editor. Multicam editing. 3D and 4K capability. Motion tracking. Screen recording.Cons: No trimming in source panel. Number of options can make interface overwhelming. Weak color matching.Bottom Line: PowerDirector is one of the fastest and most capable consumer-level video editing apps for Windows around, and the first to support 360-degree VR footage.Read ReviewPinnacle Studio Ultimate Review
MSRP: $129.95Pros: Clear interface. Edits 360-degree VR content. Fast rendering performance in testing. Tons of effects. Multicam editing. 4K and H.265 support. Tagging and star ratings for media. Good audio tools.Cons: Motion tracking issues on one test PC. Occasional crashes in testing. Uneven 360-degree VR implementation.Bottom Line: Pinnacle Studio is a fast, full-featured, near-professional-level video-editing application with support for 360-degree VR, 3D, and multicam edits. New color grading and four-point editing make it even more appealing, though our testing uncovered some instabilities.Read ReviewMagix Movie Edit Pro Premium Review
MSRP: $129.99Pros: Lots of video effects. Multicam. Good titling tools. Trailer-like movie templates. Solid audio editing tools. Strong disc authoring. Fast rendering. Good stability. 360-degree media support.Cons: Not much help with difficult procedures. Lacks import and organization tools. Extra costs and coded downloads for some video formats.Bottom Line: Now with faster rendering, Movie Edit Pro offers solid stability, up-to-date support for 4K, 360-degree, and multicam editing, but it trails other video editing software in ease-of-use.Read ReviewAdobe Premiere Elements Review
MSRP: $99.99Pros: Clear, simple interface. Guided Edits ease basic and advanced projects. Lots of video effects. Solid text tools. Powerful Audio editing. Good control over stabilization. 4K support.Cons: No 360-degree VR or 3D editing. No multicam feature or screen recording capability. Slow rendering speeds. No HEVC support in Windows.Bottom Line: Adobe's consumer video editing app adds a new start page, Auto Creations, a redesigned quick-editing interface, and faster performance.Read ReviewWondershare Filmora Review
MSRP: $59.99Pros: Pleasing interface. Inexpensive. Lots of effects and overlays. Good title tool.Cons: Action Cam and Cutter modes only allow one clip at a time. No search for effects or transitions. No motion tracking. No DVD menu or chapter authoring. Not a touch-friendly interface.Bottom Line: Wondershare's Filmora video editing software may not have multicam or the hottest new VR tools, but it does have a pleasing interface and lots of effects.Read ReviewApple Final Cut Pro X Review
MSRP: $299.99Pros: Magnetic, trackless timeline. Superior organization tools, including libraries, ratings, tagging, auto analysis for faces, scenes. Support for 360-degree footage and HDR. Multicam support. Fast performance. MacBook Touch Bar support.Cons: Nontraditional timeline-editing may turn off longtime editors. Can't import projects from previous versions without a third-party plug-in. No stabilization or motion tracking for 360-degree video.Bottom Line: Apple's professional-level video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, brings a wealth of power in an interface simple for pros and consumers alike. Recent highlights include rich support for 360-degree content and improved stability.Read ReviewNero Video Review
MSRP: $49.99Pros: Inexpensive. Plenty of video effects. Good audio tools. Solid file format support, including H.265. Compatible with 4K content. Burns DVD, Blu-ray, and AVCHD.Cons: Light on features. Outdated, unconventional interface. No 360 or 3D support. No motion tracking. No direct output to social networks.Bottom Line: For less money than the competition, Nero offers a wide array of enthusiast-level video editing capabilities, but the interface is dated and it trails in support for new formats and techniques.Read ReviewApple iMovie Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Beautifully simple interface. Color matching for consistent movie looks. Classy themes. Great chroma-keying tool. Lots of audio tools. Theater feature shares movies to all your Apple gear.Cons: Not as flexible as some PC video editors. In the name of simplicity, some useful controls are missing. Does not support tagging. Lacks multicam or motion tracking capabilities. Limited to two video tracks.Bottom Line: Apple's excellent entry-level desktop video editing application can turn your footage and photos into impressive productions.Read Review
Today, Editing Insider takes a look at the best video editing software for GoPro Hero 4. Your GoPro 4 is one of the most powerful cameras available today – and with its rugged construction, incredible video quality, and relatively low price point, it’s one of the most remarkable pieces of technology on the market, period.
Best Gopro Editing Software Mac
Best Video Editing Software For GoPro Hero 4
Product | Info | Features | |
---|---|---|---|
PINNACLE STUDIO 20 | Click to see Price and more Info | -Easy to Use -Great Built in Functionalities -Affordable | |
CAMTASIA STUDIO 8 | Click to see Price and more Info | -Compatible for both Mac and Windows -Easy to create dynamic videos and share them across any platform -Free trial available |
But your GoPro will only shoot the video for you, and in order to make it truly worthwhile, you have to put the footage together in a clear, attractive, and presentable way. There are several varieties of video editing software out there and a lot of conflicting arguments about which are the best; today, though, we’ll be focusing on three pieces of video editing software designed specifically to take advantage of the GoPro’s strengths and powerful capabilities.
GoPro Hero 4 & GoPro Studio
First up is GoPro Studio, designed by the GoPro company itself. With its built-in compatibility and specific focus on the GoPro, GoPro Studio is an excellent choice for the first-time video recorder looking to get their feet wet in the field.
Immediate Access and Flexible Usage
Gopro Studio
GoPro Studio is available immediately for free download at the GoPro website. Its functionality is basic in some ways – it is free software, after all, even though it’s straight from the excellent minds at GoPro – and this is certainly an advantage for people just getting used to video editing software.
GoPro Studio offers several special features to users, including automatic importing and playback of your videos, as well as the capabilities to trim, edit, and mix videos together, including several special plug-and-play transition effects. You can overdub music and other audio onto your video with ease, enabling you to provide the best soundtrack possible for the adventures your GoPro records, and can also add title cards and other effects.
Target Audience: Relative Beginners
If you’re new to the field of video editing and want to see what all the fuss is about while not breaking the bank, GoPro Studio is an excellent choice. It’ll have a learning curve, but that curve won’t be as steep as some of the more full-featured video editors, and you’ll be able to transfer the skills you learn here to other more advanced software applications. Add all that to its unbeatable price point – free – and you’ve got an excellent way to get started in the video editing world without going broke doing so.
GoPro Hero 4 & Pinnacle Studio
Pinnacle Studio is a great option for editing GoPro footage. If you’ve already learned the basics of video editing and want to tap into some more of what more powerful video editing software has to offer, the multi-tiered approach of Pinnacle Studio may just be the perfect fit. Pinnacle Studio picks up where the free features of GoPro Studio leave off, giving you a wide array of effects, editing options, and more.
Editing, Effects, and Ease of Use
There are three versions of Pinnacle Studio available for use: Pinnacle Studio, Pinnacle Studio Plus, and Pinnacle Studio Ultimate. Ranging in price from $59.95 to $129.95, all three feature drag-and-drop HD video editing, a large library of effects and transitions, DVD authoring and video sharing capabilities, and more. The base version of the software serves very well for most editing purposes, but if you’re looking to take advantage of 3D video support for future projects, automatic audio ducking for high-quality audio mixes, and live screen capture, you’ll need to aim for the Plus or Ultimate versions.
Excellent for Beginners, Intermediates, and Experts
No matter what your experience level with the process of video editing and the options of video editing software, some level of the Pinnacle Studio brand will have something to offer you. Novice users will be able to access several common features using a toolbar at the top of the screen, while more advanced users will have the time to delve into all that Pinnacle Studio has to offer with its more advanced options. The editing process is very straightforward, allowing direct manipulation and drag-and-drop interface with video clips, but this ease of use does not skimp on the quality of the software’s editing capabilities – you can create professional-looking videos using the combination of your GoPro and any level of Pinnacle Studio with ease.
The Advantages of Pinnacle Studio
Best Software For Editing Gopro Videos On Mac
Pinnacle Studio is an excellent choice for the beginner with money to spend on editing software or the intermediate looking to expand their video editing skills; it is easy enough to learn while you’re still learning the ins and outs of video editing, but robust enough for continued use when you’re more familiar with the processes involved. Skills learned on Pinnacle Studio will transfer from one version of the software to the next, so even if you start out at the lowest tier and move up from there, you’ll be able to see the advantage of investing your time and money in Pinnacle Studio’s multi-tiered approach.
GoPro Hero 4 & Camtasia
The highest price point of the three types of video editing discussed here, Camtasia also offers some of the most advanced and unique features. Camtasia starts a $299 for a single user license, and it justifies that price with a superb array of options and abilities.
The Standard Features
Camtasia offers all of what GoPro Studio and Pinnacle Studio do, first of all – straightforward and highly effective video editing, letting you create high-quality professional videos with ease. One of the first places Camtasia shines, though, is in its treatment of editing tracks: where other software forces you to allocate one track for audio, one track for video, and so on, Camtasia allows you to treat all of these media sources on the same track. This enables quick and easy manipulation of audio and video, faster and more straightforward than that of the other two types of software.
Advanced Features
If you’re buying Camtasia, you’re not just looking for the standard features. You’re interested in the more advanced features it has to offer, such as voice to speech capabilities (cutting down the time needed to create subtitles by a large amount), a notably high-quality green screen feature, easy placement and use of callouts (text boxes and arrows), and more. It’s easily the best software available for screen recording uses – tutorial videos, for example, are one area where Camtasia really shines – but you’ll be able to see its advanced capabilities when you import video from your GoPro as well.
Target Audience: Intermediate to Advanced Users, Screen Recorders
Best Software Editor For Gopro Videos
Camtasia is more geared toward intermediate and advanced users than either GoPro Studio or Pinnacle Studio. It truly shines in screen recording, but will offer a wide variety of options and tools for creating high-quality videos using your GoPro as well. Given its $299 price, it will take a bit more thought and consideration to pick up Camtasia as opposed to the other software brands mentioned – make sure you’ve got a good foothold on the process of video editing before you jump into these waters. If you’re experienced in the field, though, Camtasia’s unique features and powerful capabilities make it a no-brainer for uses like screen recording and a serious contender in editing videos shot with your GoPro. You can read more about its features and try out a demo on its website.
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Tags:GoPro Hero 4GoPro Hero video editingGoPro Studio