Corel Photo & Video X4 Ultimate Bundle

This software bundle from Corel is a combination of photo and video editing software – you can brush up your images and finely alter your videos to a professional standard. The Corel Photo & Video X4 UltimateBonus pack also includes 3D glasses so you can make full use of its ‘export in 3D’ function. As befits the fourth incarnation of Corel’s Photo & Video suite, the tools have been finely honed to a professional standard and excellently arranged for maximum usability.

What we like best

When it comes to medie editing, the tendency is to look towards the Mac & Adobe team-up, but with Corel’s PaintShop Pro X4 there’s no need to change your hardware if you’re on a PC. This software has been given over 75 new and enhanced features, and allows you to clear up photos or blur them giving you control of the viewer’s focus.

There are also impressive selections of editing items that will allow you to collate images as well as seamlessly mesh or cut and paste items from images. You can also use the Fill Light option to retouch those disappointing photos shot in poor light. Selective Focus is a feature which is as good as a tilt shift lense, so those panoramic photographs can have a more refined saliency.

The Pro X4 VideoStudio is an unrivalled tool for video editing. It is tailored to make the most of Intel’s second generation of Intel Core i-processors. You’ll also be able to edit and render at maximum capacity with AMD processors ,and the Corel Photo & Video X4 Ultimate Bundle runs beautifully on a multi-core system.

Some of the added features in VideoStudio X4 include over 230 royalty free sound effects, which will add an extra dimension to your movies. The updated Video Studio also allows you to work with Stop motion animation and time lapse photography. These are simply laid out features, so the most difficult thing about them is taking the photos.

The boxed version of Corel’s Photo & Video X4 Ultimate Bundle includes 3D glasses, meaning you can use this software to render your movies in 3D and quickly upload them to Youtube. The PaintShop programme has a similar featue allowing you to quickly put your edited images on Facebook or Flilckr.

What we like least

Rather than redesign the programme it has new features added on top of it: if you are a fan of the old layout then it won’t be much of a problem, and a brief add and remove to the toolbar will set you well on your way. And as always video editing is a performance-consuming process – with the new processors performance has improved a great deal, but it is unavoidably stop start with lesser computers.