Not content with stealing Apple’s thunder as pro users shun Final Cut Pro X in favor of Premiere Pro CS5.5, Adobe has introduced an updated consumer-oriented version of their editing suite that threatens to encroach on iMovie’s turf. Now that Adobe Premiere Elements 10 is ready for its closeup, here’s a quick peek at what you can expect.
Adobe is on the comeback trail with its pro video software, ironically thanks to Apple’s troubled release of Final Cut Pro X back in June. While Adobe Premiere first debuted exclusively on the Mac way back in 1991 (and didn’t arrive on Windows until nearly two years later), the company finally waved the white flag on the Apple platform nearly a decade ago with Premiere 6.5, the last version for the Mac until being resuscitated by Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 in 2007.
Perhaps enjoying the sweet taste of revenge as veteran Final Cut Pro editors seek asylum back in their loving bosom, Adobe has now refocused their sights on Apple’s consumer base with this week’s release of Premiere Elements 10, the company’s video editing companion to the popular Photoshop Elements, which also arrives with a fresh new version. Aimed at “photo and video enthusiasts,” both Elements titles are available for $99.99 each ($79.99 for upgrades) or as a bundle for only $149.99.
We managed to score a first look at Adobe Premiere Elements 10 (and will have a full review shortly), so here’s a taste of what to expect from the company’s second pass at editing made easy on the Mac platform.
The first thing you’re likely to notice when opening Adobe Premiere Elements 10 for Mac is that it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel -- in fact, the user interface echoes that of Apple’s own iMovie HD, the 2006 edition which was radically overhauled two years later, then took nearly the same amount of time for engineers to finally tweak to the point where users started to accept it (with this year’s iMovie ’11).
A large preview window makes up the upper left half of the screen, a thin blue timeline across the bottom representing clips with playback controls below them. Across the bottom of the window, users have a choice of keeping things simple with the Sceneline (large icons representing each video clip, with audio tracks for narration and music) or switching to the more advanced Timeline mode familiar to users of Adobe Premiere Pro or even legacy versions of Final Cut Pro.
The upper right half of the screen is made up of four tabs for getting media in and out of the application as well as spicing things up. The Project tab shows all imported clips in either a grid or list view, while the Edit tab allows you to add effects, transitions, titles, themes and clip art on clips you’ve selected in either Timeline or Sceneline.
Disc Menus is where you’ll build a DVD or Blu-ray of your finished project, while the Share tab offers up a variety of other export options including tape output, mobile devices and online options.
Finally, the upper right of the screen provides easy access to save your project, undo or redo the last thing you’ve done, play your masterpiece in full screen mode, jump to the Premiere Elements welcome screen or open Elements Organizer.
Shared between Premiere Elements 10 and Photoshop Elements 10 is the Elements Organizer. Similar to the Adobe Bridge software included with the company’s more expensive Creative Suite products, Elements Organizer goes well beyond simply sorting, tagging and searching your videos and photos.
In keeping with the Premiere Elements 10 interface, Elements Organizer also includes four tabbed windows on the right side. Organize shows all of your video and photo projects along with options to act on them (with media shown at left), while the Fix tab offers quick corrections (for photos only) without having to leave the app, including Auto Smart Fix, Auto Color, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Sharpen, Auto Red Eye Fix and Crop. From here, clips or photos can easily be sent to Premiere Elements, where they’re added to the end of your project. Photos can also be sent to Photoshop Elements 10, which is included with Premiere Elements 10 as a 30-day free trial.
Elements Organizer also makes it easy for novice users to get started, thanks to the Create tab. Simply select from one of the preset functions -- which include Photo Prints, Photo Collage and DVD with Menu -- and the software walks you through the whole process.
Of interest to Premiere Elements 10 users will be the “InstantMovie” option, which offers a variety of clever presets including Baby Nursery, Comic Book and Watercolors. Choose which clips to include, select one of the 30 presets and like magic, the software will create a video complete with titles, filters and edits that don’t require any heavy lifting from the user. (This feature is also available directly from Premiere Elements 10’s Project menu.)
Files can be imported straight into Elements Organizer with the File > Get Photos and Videos menu, including direct from a camera or card reader (which includes the iPhone and iPad), files or folders on disk or even importing an iPhoto library. Finally, Elements Organizer also features a Share tab with beefed up export options for Online Album, Email Attachments, Burn Video DVD/Blu-ray, Online Video Sharing, Mobile Phones and Players, Share to Flickr, Share to Facebook, Share to SmugMug Gallery and Share video to YouTube.
Premiere Elements 10 arrives with a host of new features, all of which apply to Mac users with the exception of 64-bit support for Windows 7 (Premiere Elements 10 will run on Mac OS X 10.5.8 through Lion 10.7, but only in 32-bit compatibility mode on 64-bit systems). All-new to the Mac is the formerly Windows-only SmartSound, which taps into the included Sonicfire Pro 5 database to add a variety of music soundtracks which can be automatically adjusted to the length of your movie.
All Premiere Elements 10 users get a new “pan and zoom” tool for adding animated photos to video projects, color correction auto-fix and enhancement tools, sharing completed movies to Facebook and the ability to export Blu-ray quality HD movies to regular DVD discs, no BD-R burner required.
Elements Organizer also adds object search, Facebook Friends tagging, duplicate detection, improved visual search and the aforementioned YouTube uploading into the mix as well.
Registering Premiere Elements 10 with your Adobe ID brings free benefits such as automatic online backup, 2GB of online video and photo storage, access to tutorials, tips and tricks, automatic sync for video clips and photos on multiple computers, a personal URL for sharing video and photo albums and access to your media online at Photoshop.com.
Adobe is also offering Premiere Elements 10 Plus, a $49 per year option available for U.S. users only which bumps the online storage up to 20GB and adds exclusive access to libraries of how-to videos, movie themes and video effects. New users can save $10 on the first year by purchasing Adobe Premiere Elements 10 Plus for only $139.99.
The release of Adobe Premiere Elements 10 coincides with the company’s celebration of 10 years for the consumer-centric product line, having racked up more than 180 awards in the last decade. Will Adobe be successful at luring away iMovie users in the same way they’ve managed to woo unhappy Final Cut Pro users into the waiting arms of Premiere Pro CS5.5? Time will tell, but stay tuned for our full review of Adobe Premiere Elements 10 to get a better idea.
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chsoundman
September 20, 2011 at 12:20pm
Adobe's largest hurdle will be convincing people to pay $100+ for software that pretty much does the same thing as iMovie, which come pre-loaded for free on Macs. Unless some people just detest iMovie enough to do so. It does look interesting. I may have to take a peek just to see what all it can do and how it stands up to iMovie and if it's worth the $100.
