Alan Stafford

One-trick-pony software applications often play useful roles, especially if they have secondary advantages such as a lower price, smaller memory requirements, or the ability to run well on older systems. Wondershare's PDF Converter Pro ($80 as of April 27, 2012) certainly has a narrow focus, offering fewer features than competing PDF utilities; unfortunately, it costs nearly as much as those competing programs.

Conversion Diversions

PDF creation and conversion applications are more common than rainbows in Hawaii. A new version of one of these utilities, Lulu Software's Soda PDF Pro + OCR ($100 as of April 27, 2012), promises big features for its modest price; unfortunately, though it performs basic functions adequately, it doesn't quite deliver on the pot of gold.

PDF Competitors

High-dynamic-range photography can be a tricky process, and although some digital cameras have an HDR capture mode, ultimately you'll want to capture the images and combine them yourself for the ultimate in creative control. Unified Color's new HDR Expose 2 image-editing application ($149 as of April 30, 2012) claims to overcome camera limitations by combining multiple images of different exposures to create one properly exposed composition. If you can snap the right images--and if you're willing to tweak--this application can deliver on its promise.

Expose Exposed

With its latest version of VideoStudio Pro, Corel is aiming to crack the Web video production nut. VideoStudio Pro X5 ($80 as of April 30, 2012) is a video-editing application capable of handling everything from start to finish, supplying all that you need to produce videos that you can host, and that play in any HTML 5-compliant browser. But you'll need a computer with one of the latest CPUs to produce cutting-edge video.

HTML 5--What's Hot for Video

If there's one thing that stifles creative energy with deadly effectiveness, it's having to wait. That's why the new GPU-accelerated features in Sony's Vegas Pro 11 video-editing application ($600 as of January 3, 2012) are more welcome than pretty much anything else Sony could have done for this application.

Speed Me Up, Scotty

Often, you can get by perfectly well with a budget-minded software application that lacks fancy features you may never need. FoxIt's PhantomPDF 5.0 Business ($149 as of November 21, 2011) is the epitome of such middlebrow software: It costs a third of what the blueblood Adobe Acrobat X does, and it can handle most everyday PDF editing tasks.

But that's not to say that you'll be getting a Porsche for the price of a Pinto with PhantomPDF 5.0 Business. The program lacks the most innovative PDF features of Acrobat X, and it comes nowhere near matching Acrobat's polish. It's even rougher around the edges than Nuance's similarly priced PDF Converter Enterprise 7. But PhantomPDF 5.0 Business is a lean, fast application that will work efficiently on older, slower computers in your office; and like Nuance, FoxItcan lets you opt for other versions of PhantomPDF that omit a few more features but cost even less.

Adobe has been producing its Photoshop Elements image-editing and -organizing software for a full decade now. Each successive version acquires more tools, additional features, and greater refinement; and Elements 10 ($100, or $80 as an upgrade as of September 20, 2011) remains the best consumer-level image editor you can buy. But the organizer in Photoshop Elements 10--an increasingly important component of Elements--suffers from performance shortcomings that drag the entire product down.

Waiting on the Final Analysis

We all want bargains--a BMW priced like a Kia, a mansion for the price of a condo, champagne at beer prices. A newly updated PDF-editing application, Nitro Pro 7 ($100 as of November 7, 2011) claims to have the power of Adobe Acrobat at a fraction of the price. Although it delivers on the price part of that claim, it lacks some useful features, and it had problems exporting from PDF to other formats. This file is available for download in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

The Import/Export Business

Is your workshop like mine? 37 screwdrivers, 16 of which are nearly identical; a saw over here, a saw over there--wait, where did I leave that saw? Corel's PaintShop Pro X4 ($100, as of October 17, 2011) is like my workshop, too--enough tools to serve the needs of almost anyone, assuming that they can find the right one for the job at hand. Though PaintShop Pro X4 is a powerful, extremely capable image-editing application, it would benefit greatly from having a ruthless cleanup crew step in and throw some stuff away.

The Commercial Kitchen Sink

Adobe has been producing its Photoshop Elements image-editing and -organizing software for a full decade now. Each successive version acquires more tools, additional features, and greater refinement; and Elements 10 ($100, or $80 as an upgrade as of September 20, 2011) remains the best consumer-level image editor you can buy. But the organizer in Photoshop Elements 10--an increasingly important component of Elements--suffers from performance shortcomings that drag the entire product down.

Waiting on the Final Analysis

Adobe's Premiere Elements 10 video-editing application sports a few hand-me-downs from its pricier Premiere sibling, plus a major under-the-hood upgrade with the addition of a new Windows 7 64-bit version. I looked at the shipping version ($100, $80 upgrade as of September 20, 2011) of this consumer-oriented application, and found a few other new features that make me like it even more.

64-Bit Version--But No Vista

Adobe now offers a 64-bit version of Premiere Elements 10, but only for Windows 7. Owners of Windows XP 64-bit systems or Windows Vista 64-bit systems will have to be satisfied with the 32-bit version. The organizer that accompanies Elements remains 32-bit, too. The main benefit of going to a 64-bit version, of course, is that the application can address more system memory, and thus should perform better (especially with high-definition content and larger projects); furthermore, it should be more stable because the app will be less likely to run out of memory, assuming that your PC is well stocked.

So far, no broadcast television networks have committed to broadcasting in 3D, despite the proliferation of 3D HDTVs. No problem--if you can't watch 3D TV, go out and make some content of your own with a 3D camcorder and a video-editing application such as Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 ($100 as of August 27, 2011). The new version of the software adds stereoscopic-3D-video-editing capabilities to a powerful, albeit somewhat complicated, application.

I See in 3D