CS3 vs CS4

[Bill McCrystyn]

Do I need to run out and buy CS4? I have a friend who has offered it to me. Is it worth the bother?

[Roger Clark]

Bill,
If you have a newer camera and use ACR, only the ACR with CS4 handles cameras released over the last year or so. I personally do not see anything in CS4 that I need as a photographer over CS3. I got CS4 for the raw converter for my 5D Mark II.

Roger

[Bill McCrystyn]

I do use ACR. Is it ACR or ARC?? :o I have an older D300, so it may not even work with it in Raw Conversion.

Thanks as always Roger. Bill

[Robert Amoruso]

Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). I am using both on different computers and feature wise don't feel an upgrade is needed unless yo have a new camera and required ACR for processing and Roger mentions.

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Robert, i currently own a 50d, and a 7d on the way, :) ;). What's your advice, as i'm using LR 2.5 at this time. What should i put on the christmas list? My college son, is thinking of getting me a CS4 student version..if you follow :) :) Also sorry to sound dumb, however what is ACR?? Last thing i wish to do, is make a purchase, and then find, i'm "hosed" for the 7d, and 50d.. thks
Don

[Roger Clark]

ACR = Adobe Camera raw, Adobe's raw converter. If you have CS3 or earlier, the ACR in those versions do not support newer cameras, e.g. 5D mark II and later (circa fall 2008). ACR comes with photoshop CSx as does Bridge.

Roger

[Bill McCrystyn]

Thanks Robert. I am thinking ahead with what Nikon may come up with. You never know. I guess I could deal with it then. Thanks .. Bill

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Have you tried downloading Adobe DNG converter 5.6 (free) converts both 5D MKII and 7D Raw files to DNGs and they will open in CS3 ACR, also you can opt to leave the original Raw file embeded for future extraction in the DNG file (makes them BIG)

[RichardLaBella]

I have the 7D and was dismayed that ACR apparently won't be updated for older than CS4.

However, Lightroom 2.6RC/ACR5.6 is available.

Upgrade Lightroom & you can convert your RAW in Lightroom & then process further if needed in CS2 or CS3!

[James Prudente]

This will tell you the new features of CS4 compared to CS3.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop ... iew=topnew

[John Chardine]

At the risk of hijacking the thread, what about Elements 8 vs. CS3 or 4?

[RichardLaBella]

I would think that more photographers workflow includes Lightroom & Photoshop CSx than Elements. Elements functionality remains a subset of Photoshop CSx.

[John Chardine]

But I understand that Elements gets closer to Photoshop with every version. Just interested to know if there are key features still missing in Elements 8.