Adobe Premiere Elements 7 is the latest offering from Adobe and it is an award winning product. Version 7 now introduces AVCHD support - which was unavailable in previous versions.

Adobe Premiere Elements 7 video editing software
 

If you're not familiar, AVCHD is format for the recording and playback of high definition video. This AVCHD support is a breakthrough, and what makes Adobe Premiere Elements 7 even more attractive is its support for burning Blu-ray discs. If you own a Blu-ray burner, it's a nice plus.

Also, Adobe Premiere Elements 7 contains a whole host of features, from Smart Tagging, SmartSound integration, the ability categorize videos, as well as additional storage and sharing features.

One of the nice new features of Adobe Premiere Elements 7 is its Smart Tagging feature.

Here's what it does. Imagine you have a lot of video footage that has been shot and imported into your computer. Point Premiere Elements 7 to those videos, and activate Smart Tagging. The program trawls through the videos and tags them based on content. For example, it can hunt for scenes with faces or identify scenes which are out of focus, underexposed or overexposed, as well as those which are shaky. Impressive, huh? I thought so.
 

The Smart Tagging window in Adobe Premiere Elements 7
 

You can then apply search filters and find specific videos that you want. For example, you can, with careful tagging, search for all the videos that contain scenes of your baby son on his 10th birthday. Or maybe all video scenes shot during your ski trip to Switzerland.

Chroma-key is an important capability in video editing. For the uninitiated, the chroma-key effect allows you to combine video by shooting one video with a green-screen background, then replacing the green with a separate background.

This creates interesting effects and is used in all sorts of situations - e.g. superimposing your face (shot in a studio) onto a background of a sandy beach in the Mediterranean. All you need to do is to perform a few simple clicks in Adobe Premiere 7 to achieve this chroma-key effect.

Another aspect of Adobe Premiere 7 you will like is it's InstantMovie capability.
 

The InstantMovie screen in Adobe Premiere Elements 7
 

How does it work? Well, let me give you an example. Let's say you've just carefully tagged all the clips of your baby son shot over the last year. Now, if you wanted to create a birthday video, you can put the InstantMovie feature to good use. Simply specify those clips which have been tagged and feed them into InstantMovie - you can then create a movie in a few minutes, complete with nice themes and all.

Other products like Corel VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio have similar auto-movie functions - but I find them less efficient in locating the clips you want.

You'll also find that Adobe Premiere 7 comes integrated with Photoshop.com. Photoshop.com is a paid online service which gives you 2GB of space store and share videos. If you upgrade to the Plus membership ($49.99 per year), you can back up 20GB of video - and also get new content, Premiere Elements tutorials and other interesting aids.
 

The Photoshop.com website

I really like another feature of Adobe Premiere Elements 7 - the support for SmartSound audio tracks. SmartSound Software is the maker of the SmartSound family of music technology, which features music customized to fit to specific video projects. This capability greatly allows you to flex your creative muscles even more when it comes to adding audio to your video.

I've covered off the main features of Adobe Premiere 7 in the above. However, I've only scratched the surface. You can also explore other functionalities like themes, effects, transitions, as well as options for creating titles. Be sure to check those out if you're deciding whether to buy the product.

So what's not to like about Adobe Premiere Elements 7? Some of its shortcomings - a slightly unintuitive editor, rudimentary SmartSound integration, as well as limited DVD authoring configurability. Also, the supplied themes can get repetitive after a while. But on the whole, I can see no major boos boos in Adobe Premiere Elements 7.