Review: 1stVideo

So, I've pretty much just been working with the 1st video application in one way or another so far, and I have to say, it's a surprising app that takes a little getting used to.

Now, at first, it seemed like an incredibly time consuming process. I assumed I would need to go clip by clip and trim them all before I could drop them into a timeline. This was my fault for not understanding how the application works. I'm sure it probably saved me a little time in the REAL editing phase, but it doubled my clips and took about an hour before I even so a timeline, at which point I commenced to cut and clip things without regard for my earlier trimming. Once you start a new project, though, this baby shines.

The video editing section of 1st Video just WORKS. My fingers are a little big, so sometimes it got frustrating trying to snag the indicator, but once I got the hang of it I was zooming. Plus, the feature where you can tap the screen with two fingers to enter into a menu of abilities, chief among these being copy, paste and cut was a godsend. It was intuitive, worked where I needed it to, and didn't bite back too many times. I say too many times because I found myself cursing after five minutes of getting exactly the right selection, only to skip the drag and drop stop and insert the entire clip into my timeline. Aligning sound was also a cinch, although something weird was going on with my leveling. Still, I took to it with the attitude that, if I repeated my command enough times, the program would eventually become agreeable. A little tyrannical, maybe, but overall effective.

The audio recording feature on this application is also pretty astounding. the meters are actually handy, and you can cut and clip just like with video. Plus, there's a seperate track for audio in the project timeline, so there were absolutely no difficulties (other than the leveling from before) in putting it all together.

The picture taking facet of the application worked exactly like taking pictures with the phones internal application, except that every picture was put into a queue after being taken. Eventualy, you hit a button, give a name to the pictures you want taken, and it files them all. Call it "Roots and Blues" and you will get every picture you've taken saved as "Roots and Blues 1, Roots and Blues 2...". I suppose this would be annoying if you wanted to name every picture individually, but you can go back through and rename if you really want/need to, so no problem.

When you get to showcase, things get trickier. Getting the pictures to time out to the audio can be a trip and a half. The phone may have a new little scratch from repeated hurling. However, with enough paitience, it can eventually be done. It works in seperate tracks again, like with the video and audio.

Finaly, exporting. I havn't seen how this works on another camera, and it could simply be that I am not registered with Vericorder yet (it's a phone that was a trial phone by Vericorder a year ago, so the MIMS expired. However, I have yet to find a way to get this stuff off my phone. In fact, it doesn't eve show up on my phone under my pictures or videos. It's off in some memory bank I have no access to. I'll have to go see the tech department about that. Still, this is a serious problem. At the very least, there should be an option to export to your phone's memory.

In all, a useful application for video and voiceover, but when it comes to pictures, you can do better. That goes for audio slideshows and exporting too.

Video - 8
Audio - 9
Photo - 6
Editing:
Video - 8
Audio - 7
Photo - 5
Video and Audio - 8
Audio and Photo - 4
Export Ability - 0
Intuitiveness - 6
Good Sensitivity (reacts to my input commands) - 5
Bad Sensitivity (reacts to finger commands I DIDN'T give) - 7
Overall - 7 (assuming the exporting can be figured out)