Filmora Video Editor - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

You asked for it. Here's my review of the Filmora Video Editing Software by Wondershare.

First, take a look at this video I just put together with it and judge for yourself.

In a nutshell, I like it but this software is a little glitchy so far.

Overall I'm happy with the results but I did have to restart the program several times because of an error when it froze trying to upload some photos.

I really like a lot of the special effects and filters it offers, although I think they could improve on their panning and zooming effects.

I can only compare Filmora to Apple's iMovie or Window's Movie maker because those are the two video editing programs I was familiar with. What can I say, each of these editors has its own limitations depending what your expectations are.

At one point I had bought a number of filters and effects for WMM and I was happy with the results for a while. Back then my biggest complaint was Movie Maker's lack of Blur effects. WMM's panning and zooming effects were quite adequate in my opinion and the software was very wasy to learn and use.

Filmora has tons of cool effects and filters, overlays, you name it, this software includes plenty of great effects and if you're into text effects, they've got that covered too. Where Filmora falls a little short, for me, is with it all important panning and zooming effects.

Some of them are very good and useful, however, its most important and most useful basic zooms and pans are missing altogether. That's a shame because otherwise, I think Filmora is an excellent program despite its occasional glitches.

I sure had a great time working with it and taking advantage of all it has to offer. I only wish they had focused on essential zooming elements, such as zoom to right corner, pan from upper left, to lower right, etc.

The kinds of zooms best mimic camera movements and without them I find myself a bit stuck and unable to get the exact look and feel I'm after.

Timeline screenshot for the making of Millennium Trailer

In all fairness to Filmora, I suppose it depends what you expect from the software. I'm sure most users are thrilled with the effects it has to offer if you're just interested in making some cool home movies. But if you want a more professional feel to your videos, you might want to look at other high-end editing programs such as Vegas Movie Studio or even Apple's Final Cut software.

The bottom line is that for the price-point of $59, I think Filmora is a great deal and then some.

You can download a free trial version here and judge for yourself:

Filmora Video Editing