Check out this flow from invision. (requires screenflow) http://blog.invisionapp.com/7-tips-for-designing-awesome-gifs/

I usually use Licecap for screen recordings. Easy to use and no hassle with converting.

Video to gif +1 for gifrocket

My favorite flow has been:

1. Record screen or iPhone with quicktime

2. Send to GifBrewery

GifBrewery is worth it. I can trim and edit really quick/easy and then its got some nice ways to optimize the gif, like limiting colors, frames, etc.

If you're on a mac, record with quicktime and then drop your video into gifrocket.

http://www.gifrocket.com/

http://blog.pkh.me/p/21-high-quality-gif-with-ffmpeg.html

I've been experimenting with this technique lately.

I generally go the record a video, and then import into Photoshop route. Nothing I've tried gives the control Photoshop offers. Gifbrewery, Licecap, and Gifrocket will give you gifs, but the tweaking of quality, and manual frame editing is missing.

This may or may not be suitable for you particular needs, but for the past 6 months or so I've been using an called Recordit. It works very well. You select the portion of the screen to record, then after the recording, a page is generated with the video of the recording AND a high quality gif. It's limited to 5 minutes, and you only get 4 or 6 FPS unless you upgrade to pro. It works great for me.

http://recordit.co/