Recently I have had to start doing screencasts (a video of you computer screen’s output) and with so many programs out there, which did I choose?. Looking around I came across the usual suspects of Screenflow (USD$99.99) and Snapz Pro ($69). These are renowned as excellent applications but what I didn’t like was the price. Being a student it’s pretty obvious why.
I then searched further down the list and came to two programs: iShowU (USD$20) and Screenflick ($29).
These programs are quite similar. Both have a similar feature list (although Screenflick had a few extra niceties) and a similar price tag. What made up my mind is quite simple; the user experience. While iShowU is a series of lists, Screenflick is modualed into four sections: Screen, Audio, Keyboard, Mouse. It presents to you the options in a clear way making it seam less daunting. A useful feature that iShowU lacks but Screenflick has raw footage capture. iShowU compresses you video as you record, making the framerate drop dramatically during recording. Screenflick compresses after you record and allows you to choose the compression settings after you have filmed.
What swayed me was the polish of Screenflick. The Cocoaness of it is very apparent from the use of a Quicklook style preview pane. It’s fast, easy and beautiful! For budget screencast applications, Screenflick has my vote.
