Do you do a lot of effects or motion graphics design? Do you have a use for a photoshop/lightroom-like photo editing app? If so, post is for you. If not, then 19 Edit or Pro will work. (Pro just comes with more stuff bundled, same app as edit).

I have Vegas POST 18 and although I rarely use IMAGE, since I already use MAGIX Xara Designer Pro, there are indeed some great features of 'Image' if that's the only graphics software you'll be using.

I took the extra time to LEARN Vegas Effects, although it DID take a lot of web and You Tube video searching to find solutions and questions answered. (Including many a search through the forums and tutorials at Hitfilm Pro which Vegas Effects is, to a certain degree) The so called Vegas Effects "help" area is weak at best.

I have used VEGAS EFFECTS quite a bit to accomplish some cool compositing for ads and a few videos. I picked up BorisFX Mocha and Boris Continuum as well but I've found only about half of the Boris Continuum effects work in Vegas Effects. (They all work just fine in Vegas Pro...but...it is indeed a hassle and shortcoming at times)

If you learn Vegas Effects, it is indeed a great piece of compositing software and being able to jump in and out of Vegas is advantageous as well. HOWEVER...the lack of solid instructional details, forum help AND little in the way of any updates is the downside. I looked into Vegas Post 19 and saw virtually NOTHING in the way of any robust or substantial updates for Vegas Effects. (Even though, Hitfilm updated more than a couple of times since the last Effects update)

So, in conclusion, I have a great tool in Vegas Effects as well as Vegas Pro 18 but I see now that what I have currently in Vegas Effects is what I'll continue to have until upgrading at a later time when meaningful and helpful changes merit any additional outlay of cash.

Good luck!

I have Vegas POST 18 and although I rarely use IMAGE, since I already use MAGIX Xara Designer Pro, there are indeed some great features of 'Image' if that's the only graphics software you'll be using.

I took the extra time to LEARN Vegas Effects, although it DID take a lot of web and You Tube video searching to find solutions and questions answered. (Including many a search through the forums and tutorials at Hitfilm Pro which Vegas Effects is, to a certain degree) The so called Vegas Effects "help" area is weak at best.

I have used VEGAS EFFECTS quite a bit to accomplish some cool compositing for ads and a few videos. I picked up BorisFX Mocha and Boris Continuum as well but I've found only about half of the Boris Continuum effects work in Vegas Effects. (They all work just fine in Vegas Pro...but...it is indeed a hassle and shortcoming at times)

If you learn Vegas Effects, it is indeed a great piece of compositing software and being able to jump in and out of Vegas is advantageous as well. HOWEVER...the lack of solid instructional details, forum help AND little in the way of any updates is the downside. I looked into Vegas Post 19 and saw virtually NOTHING in the way of any robust or substantial updates for Vegas Effects. (Even though, Hitfilm updated more than a couple of times since the last Effects update)

So, in conclusion, I have a great tool in Vegas Effects as well as Vegas Pro 18 but I see now that what I have currently in Vegas Effects is what I'll continue to have until upgrading at a later time when meaningful and helpful changes merit any additional outlay of cash.

Good luck!

VEGAS Effects 3 new features:

New Proxy system

BlackMagic RAW Support

A pre-render system that makes your timeline playback much faster.

Cosmos plugin for making star fields, constellations, etc.

Super-Glow effect

Export FBX Camera tracking data to 3D apps such as Blender

Gotta buy it though. Wasn't just an "update" even having purchased Post back in May.

Yes, VE3 came out in late August. For future reference, the end of the summer is historically when the big updates drop... but now they have moved on to continuous delivery (at least for VEGAS Pro, not sure if that applies to VE and VI because they are made by FX Home, not VEGAS Create Software), that may no longer be the case.