CamStudio Portable 2.5 Beta 1 / 2.0

Making small movies like tutorials or demonstration videos can be a quite pleasant and effortless activity, provided that the right tools are at hand. Once you get an application like CamStudio Portable, the day will suddenly brighten up because it has so much to offers and demands almost nothing in return.

With this software you get all the tools you need to capture screen activity, with sound, and add various annotations, screen captions and even another movie to the output. It doesn't require installation, as you probably guessed by looking at its name, so you can use it from a flash drive or any similar portable device.

The interface is not what you could call appealing, but all the commands are at hand and the settings for both video and audio recording are easily customizable, so most users should encounter no difficulties in operating this program.

CamStudio Portable comes with its own player that will pop up as soon as you stop the capture. Another great feature of this utility is its ability to turn the recorded AVI files into SWF movies that are more suited for web streaming. In fact, if you need to use the Flash format, you can record directly to SWF by simply pressing a button.

The application enables you to make full screen captures, but you can change this by selecting a fixed size region or manually delimiting the desired recording area each time. The quality is given by the compressor and the configurable options available. However, you can simply use the default values that are already set for optimal results.

If at any point during the operation you feel the need to have some function explained, you can rely on the accompanying documentation which can give you an in depth insight for every feature. To sum things up in a single phrase, CamStudio Portable offers you a powerful set of features wrapped in a small package that you can have without paying a cent and use on the go.