CS3 v. CS5 - Any reason to upgrade?

[Kirk Gittings]

Kirk, FWIW, Ctein's post was specifically about CS5 for Mac. There are any number of reasons why that might behave differently from CS5 for Windows.

Absolutely true. Gone are the days when Photoshop was optimized for Macs.

[Ken Allen]

You have to upgrade every three cycles to retain upgrade pricing, so I think you can wait until CS6 is offered and still get the $200 (or whatever they rip us for) upgrade pricing.

Actually, for the CS suite the rate goes up for each version away. It cost more to upgrade from CS3 suite to CS5 suite than it was to upgrade from CS4 suite to CS5 suite. And they've dropped the standard suites and only have premium suites so its $900 CS3 Std Suite to CS5 Prem Suite, and $600 CS4 Std. Suite to CS5 Prem. Suite.

[Kirk Gittings]

One caveat. CAF is not perfect-no tool like this is. It doesn't do nearly as good a job as the PS videos would suggest. For example if you are working on areas with hard edges it gets wonky, but it does some things much better than previous tools like replace large areas of a sky all the way out to the frame. Hence it does not replace other clone type tools but adds another that works better in some situations than the previous tools do.

[Frank Petronio]

I've used Photoshop, Freehand, and Pagemaker since versions one, bought plenty of fonts, and appreciate Adobe's pioneering role in putting graphics and imaging in the hands of designers and photographers.

But nowadays they are a pig of company and they have lost any of my remaining loyalty. Their upgrades are bogus and not worth the money. They profit by doing legalized extortion.

They are as bad as Quark used to be!

The time is ripe for a true Photoshop competitor to come to market. Not GIMP or some programmer's hobby app, I'd gladly pay a few hundred for a really clean, well-built tool. It is really a shame nobody has offered this yet.

I imagine Adobe has an army of lawyers to beat up any competitors.... they are bastards.

[gnuyork]

It doesn't do nearly as good a job as the PS videos would suggest.

They never do. Same goes for Apple demonstrations of motion, color, soundtrack, and logic. I think it's by design to get you to believe that you too can make the magic happen at the press of a button.

And then you try it for real and scratch your head...

[Sideshow Bob]

Wow Frank! What did Adobe do, put a horse head in your bed or something?

Gale

[Henry Ambrose]

I've been around since v. 1 of all those too.
There have not been really meaningful upgrades for many years now.
Mostly big hype and little substance.
But they gotta do something, I suppose.

[Rick Moore]

I rarely see things from the same perspective as Frank, but this time he's spot on.



--
Rick

[Frank Petronio]

Grumble I don't like being forced to buy something, I use InDesign and Illustrator too and I can't see a lick of added value even over three versions worth of upgrades....

[Kirk Gittings]

I understand the gripes, there is allot that could use fixing as mentioned above in recent versions of PS, but I have to disagree (not very vehemently though). Each new version of PS has had features that make me more productive. Anything that saves me time or gives me better IQ makes my life easier, makes my business look better and makes it more profitable. Oftentimes the costs of these updates are made back in a week for me. Today alone CAF saved me probably 1.5 hours already. The cost/benefit profile for these upgrades are a no brainer for me even if there is only one simple tool that makes my work easier or better.