As anyone who watches our videos knows, we do a lot of screencasts. Screencasts are helpful, instructional, educational and so on. They work and work well.

But I don’t see too many OS X screencasts on YouTube. And the ones I do see are rather terrible. The audio is so-so, the video quality is choppy… what gives?

This got me to thinking… Surely there must be software options to screencast easily on the Mac?

So I checked it out. I found a great list of software on theAppleBlog in a post apted titled Screencast Software Options.

That blog, plus several others, recommend Snapz Pro X. However the drawback is that you have to pay for it.

Is there a freeware screencast software like Camstudio for Windows? Yes. The closest match is Copernicus. It appears to do the job and operates similar to Camstudio.

Are there tutorials for screencasting on a Mac? I found this one on YouTube, however the process seemed very lengthy and time consuming.

On the paid end of things in Windows, we do use Camtasia a lot. A whole lot. It’s an absolute kick-ass piece of software and does exactly what you want it to do every time. The motion is smooth, the options are easy to understand, there’s zooming, panning, and it’s a breeze to use.

I have used Camstudio (the free one) previously. That is also super-easy to use. Many people use it, enjoy its simplicity and it’s even got auto-pan.

On that same none, none of the OS X screencasts I’ve seen on YouTube have any auto-pan option at all. Or zooms for that matter.

Chances are we may get a Mac in the PC Mech barn sooner or later, but will screencasting a Mac be as easy as it is on Windows? Moreover, will I get the same ability I get with Camtasia (or even Camstudio for that matter) on the Mac?

If any of the readers out there know of good quality YouTube Mac OS X screencasts that show proper fluid motion and zooming or panning, please feel free to let me know because I’d be interested to check it out.