On paper, Adobe Premiere Elements is a no-brainer. It's a sensible, serious, affordable editing program with an interface and workflow that comes from its big sibling, Premiere Pro. It has more features than most camcorder enthusiasts need, while ambitious editors will find it easy to use Adobe's prosumer offerings when they upgrade. The market is a fiercely competitive place, though, and it will need to shine to stand out against the likes of Pinnacle Studio and Sony's Vegas Movie Studio.

Premiere Elements looks less like Premiere Pro with each new version, and you could be forgiven for thinking that it's been dumbed down. Adobe has created a tabbed Tasks panel, that can be as confusing as it is economical. Workflow is divided into three steps - Edit, Create menus (for DVD authoring) and Share.

Each has its own sub-stages, such as Media, Themes, Effects, Transitions and Titles, at the Edit stage. Audio isn't mentioned in this workflow at all. This encourages users to follow a strict sequence that may or may not be right for the job in hand. As with most beginner's programs, Elements offers a choice of timeline or storyboard (known here as a Sceneline).

There's no limit...

What sets Premiere Elements apart, though, is its support for unlimited audio and video tracks on the timeline and tight control over sound and picture, allowing them to be trimmed and manipulated individually. Despite its leanings towards a toybox interface, there's an awful lot of interesting features under the hood.

Five options are provided for media acquisition. Video, audio and stills can be imported from DVD or from digital cameras, mobile phones, hard drive-based camcorders or media cards.

As expected, footage can be captured from a camcorder, digital VCR or webcam. DV and HDV formats are supported for capture, with scene detection by content for HDV footage. Files can be imported from the system's hard drives or downloaded from the internet, and there's a stop motion feature for capturing footage frame by frame into a single contiguous movie file.

Media files are neatly shown in the Tasks Panel. Clips of different types or media for different scenes can be organised into folders, and the panel can display or hide movie files, audio files and images independently. Video on the timeline is always displayed alongside its audio to help distinguish it.