Screencasting or making a movies by capturing your computer screen is a great way to create tutorial lessons and how to videos. Camtasia, a PC only tool, has ruled the roost for some time in this category leaving Mac users out in the cold a bit. [SnapZPro is a fine program, but lacking in many ways.]

I’ve been experimenting with a new program from Vara Software called ScreenFlow and I’m very impressed so far.

The basic capture function works well without creating giant files. The interface is simple and intuitive, but the editing capabilities are very powerful. One of the coolest things it does is that it allow for multiple source capture. In other words you can record your screen activity and also have an inset recording from an iSight or other camera creating a kind of picture in picture effect. This is really powerful for marketers who want to create very engaging videos with little production time or cost. It’s a great way to create video presentation using PowerPoint of Keynote slides.

At $99 I think this will turn some heads. For now it only works with the Leopard OS.