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.
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Hey Rich,
You should check out the Jing project, it’s created by the same company as Camtasia and works for Mac. You can read more about it here:
http://www.snagitguide.com/26/jing-project/
Cheers,
Peter
Hi,
For a more professional full featured product, you should look at ViewletBuilder from Qarbon.
http://www.qarbon.com/presentation-software/viewletbuilder/
Screenflow is $99 and I think worth it. It captures your whole screen then you crop from there. Quality is good, and you can zoom, spotlight, cut, add narration easily. I don’t recall if you can make callouts though.
Screen recording, panning and zooming is built into Snow Leopard.
–Richard
Man, you have to upgrade your researches!!
Jing, Screenium, SnapzPro, ScreenFlow, ScreenFlick, iShowU and, probably more. All of these are just amazing, OS X like user friendly, awesome quality and now, yes, even with QuickTime X you can make a screencast.