NYC,
I am a complete amateur hobbyist. I feel it's very important to say that before I say anything else. I got into this aerial video drone stuff for fun only. I love flying and sharing my homemade videos with my family and friends mostly on YT. I'm trying to produce decent and somewhat unique video to share with them, I'm not trying to be a professional.
That being said, I've had to learn to do some basic editing and continue to try to learn more about it as I go along. I've gained a great deal of respect and admiration for the real "professionals" around here. The amount of expertise, talent and work that goes into "real" editing is a testament to the true artistry (and artists) in this profession.
From an amateurs perspective, I started with and still use Windows Movie Maker. It's free and it's relatively easy to produce the kind of videos that I described above. I don't shoot in 4K, the file sizes are very large and harder to work with than lower resolution stuff. I try to set my camera up for the least amount of editing possible and shoot most everything in 1080p.
I also use Cyberlink Power Director and Adobe Premiere Elements. They are both fairly low cost programs that are a bit better than Movie Maker but are a little more complicated to use. If i want to just put a quick video together, I use Movie Maker. If I want to try my hand at editing, some color correcting and to learn more, I use Power Director or Premiere Elements.
I've downloaded and tried to use DaVinci Resolve but find it to be way over my head and ability. There is a free version and they say it is simply amazing but it requires much more than I'm prepared to put into it for now.
I answered this question because I too was very frustrated when I first started doing this and I couldn't even comprehend what the many professional guys here were even talking about. If your goals are similar to what I described, my answer should be helpful. I hope it is.
Jerry
