Consumer Editor Reviews - Slideshow Related Features

Pan and Zoom:

Adobe Premiere Elements

Magix Movie Edit 10

Pinnacle Studio

Ulead VideoStudio

If you're an experienced user, you'll find Premiere Elements' pan and zoom controls a dream, with wonderful precision. On the other hand, if the thought of key frames makes you sweat (like they did me for about 5 years), then you'll prefer Studio.

Operationally, you use Premiere Elements' 2D motion controls to set image size and location at the various key frames that you also select. Unlike MEP, you can drag the image to the desired position, which is much more intuitive, and you can see the key frames in the Effects Control Window, which also helps.
 

Premiere Elements also includes a bunch of presets in the Effects window that you can drag in and apply without customizing them, avoiding the key frame interface entirely. In use, however, the presets get you close to where you want to be, but not exactly there. Most users will want to customize, which means using the 2D motion controls.

Not to be overly commercial, but it's a procedure I cover very well in the Making a Movie in Premiere Elements Visual QuickProject Guide. Click here for more information on that book.

2D controls are very complex and cumbersome. You can create key frames for pan, zoom and other effects, but you can't drag and position an image manually, like you can in other programs, you have to adjust it with a slider bar that has no relevant metrics (like zoom ratio or pixel based positioning).  So it takes four or five times longer to achieve the target position.

Coverage in the manual is not helpful, and the name of the tool, object curve editor, isn't helpful. If you didn't know it existed, you wouldn't look for it.

It also hurts that there's a tool called Size and Position that sounds like it should do what Object Curve tool does. However, this adjusts zoom and positioning for the image over it's entire duration, but can't set key frames.

All that said, once you find the tool, and figure it out (took a call to the help line for me), you have unlimited key frames for panning and zooming, which is a nice feature. MEP was the only tool other than Premiere Elements that could spin our logo in 2D space.

However, you can't set still image duration in the system setting (like the help file tells you can), or input a new duration manually (as you can with Studio, VideoStudio and Premiere Elements). So, working with still images in general is much harder than it needs to be.

Studio lets you select the stop and start points for each slide. For our four point pan and zoom, this forced us to insert the image four times, which is a pain.

However, Studio facilitates multi-point pan and zoom effects with a "Match previous clip" button for setting the start frame. So, once I set the end point for the third effect, I insert the image again, select pan and zoom controls and then tell Studio to start this effect where the last effect ended. This makes the operation go much faster, while keeping the interface simple enough for beginners.

For more precision, you can use Studio's pan and zoom filter accessed via the traditional filters panel.

You can set zoom, pause and transparency values for the start, middle and end of the clip. There is no easy way to extend this to the next clip as with Studio, though there is a grid and the ability to snap to the grid.

Again, though you have (very choppy) DV preview capabilities, Ulead forces you to work in a tiny cramped window which really hinders precision. Preview on the DV monitor if very slow and choppy, making it tough to gauge final quality.

Substantial flicker in test slide shows. Can reduce somewhat using several techniques, including progressive rendering, but interlaced DV files exhibit lots of flicker.

Lots of flicker in DV file, less in files rendered in progressive mode.

Pinnacle does the best job avoiding shimmer in all three tested formats, with no special controls to set.

Some flicker in AVI file (even with anti-flicker applied), none in MPEG file with progressive frames and anti-flicker filter applied

Other features:

Adobe Premiere Elements

Magix Movie Edit 10

Pinnacle Studio

Ulead VideoStudio

No, but images are on timeline, so it's simple to synch up.

No, but image are on the timeline, so it's simple to synch up

Pluses:

• Very flexible and visual key frame approach to pan and zoom

• Can rotate images in 2D and 3D

Negatives:

• Intimidating interface for beginners

• No red eye reduction

Pluses:

• Image rotation

• Unlimited key frames in pan and zoom tool

Negatives:

• Very, very obscure controls with poor documentation

• No red eye removal

Pluses:

• Very easy to use pan and zoom tool

• Good slide show support, with auto-insert transitions and red eye reduction

Negatives:

• No image rotation (unless you buy Hollywood FX)

Pluses:

• Three position editor with good positioning controls

• DV preview

Negatives:

• Very small control window

• No red-eye removal