I have used Photoshop since version 6. My thinking now is that I will just upgrade. However the upgrade doesn't add much but some fancy UI.
Here is a review from another forum.
"Just thought I'd share some of my experiences re: Photoshop CS4. I have the Standard variant.
1. CS4 is mostly enhancements to the UI. There's fairly little new functionality; it's just been repackaged. Initially, we old dogs might find that irritating, but there are settings to defeat most of the stuff we might not like (tabbed documents, for example). The Adjustments palette, which now manages adjustment layers, etc., is deserving of some permanent screen space, and it actually seems to be a pretty good way to work once you get used to it.
2. I've set up a Vista x64 Ultimate workstation, including a brand spankin' new ATI graphics card. When you install CS4 on such a system, it puts in both a 32 bit and 64 bit version of Photoshop CS4, and sets up to use the video acceleration features. Photoshop seems very nicely integrated with Vista.
3. 32 bit plugins (i.e., everything that came before CS4) won't run in the 64 bit version. I'm happy to say Actions DO run in both, however, and they've gone to some effort to make the actions engine compatible with existing actions - all mine work great in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions. To switch back and forth between versions, save your file as a .psd, close the current app, then open the file with the other.
4. The new video acceleration features are pretty cool, but you'll need a modern graphics card to take advantage of them. Smooth zoom transitions, flick images across the screen with inertia, quick rotations. Neat stuff. I found that zoom levels greater than 500% would yield a grid between the pixels, but there's a way to turn that off.
5. Photoshop seems to start up faster than it used to.
6. Photomerge is better than ever, sporting a new "Vignetting removal" feature and more options. The several panos I stitched with it came out really nice, and were incrementally better than the ones I did in CS3 with the same inputs.
7. Adobe installs more stuff than you might expect (want?). They seem to be encouraging more collaboration. There's a new "Share my desktop" feature, for example, and something called Adobe Drive. I've done nothing with these yet.
All in all I give Photoshop CS4 two thumbs up. Okay, it's an expensive repackaging of most of the old functionality, but it does have a 64 bit version (for Windows), and new UI features that make it more of a pleasure to use."
Cant believe people are surprised.
When Adobe released the last ACR 4.** it stated that it was the LAST update to support CS3. the surprise with that was the 50d support
They will be releaseing Lightroom 2.2 which will have the mk2 in and the DNG convertor has mk2 as well.
What is annoying is that they slip back at least 1 version for elements users. the new version of ACR supports ele 7 & ele 6
GeneO wrote:
There is a difference between upgrading features and supporting cameras. The features between "sub-releases" of Adobe are basically not worth $200.. You end up paying it for the camera support. $200 is a big chunk of the initial price of the software. nearly 30%. The only reason they get by with it is somewhat of a monopolistic hold on the market.
...and that they add a worthwhile bundle of features with each upgrade. CS4 (all apps) is much better than any previous version, especially Photoshop and Bridge.
Phase One for instance supports cameras on all of their supported releases without having to pay an upgrade charge.
Gene
<shrug> Use Capture 1 for the conversion, then, and Photoshop for what PS is designed for - editing the photo.
MikeZ wrote:
What is outrageous is yet another camera from Canon without the support for the DNG. If they can not produce a decent software to bundle with the camera they should at least make sure that the customer can use his own file from the camera with any software. Adobe has to reverse engineer their file format and update all old programs because mighty Canon released a new camera gimme a break!
I hear where you are coming from, but this may be an unreasonable expectation. *Every* new camera from any make requires updates to existing software regardless of file format. That's the nature of the business. The file format is just a container (or wrapper) for the sensor data, which changes from model to model.
IMO, Canon actually bundles rather good software with its cameras, which until the recent availability of Adobe's beta color profiles, simply trounced ACR for color tonality.
Don't overlook Canon's own DPP. I was using Phase One CO Pro v3.xx for my RAW conversions, but since their new Pro v4.5 is pretty much DOA, I started doing some training on Canon DPP.
gimme a break!