RE: OT: Photoshop CS4 upgrade overpriced

[EJN Photo <ejnphoto@sbcglobal.net>]

Greg, I too am in that boat. I had CS Design Premium and upgraded to CS3
design Premium which included the ext version of PS. Now with the next
version upon us, the upgrade price was increased this time around. It is
almost worth taking a college class just to get a student rate and buy the
master suite for $1000 at the student rate. It might just open up some new
job opportunities too. 

Good luck on your decision. 

Eric Neilsen Photo
4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
214 827-8301
 
http://ericneilsenphotography.com
SKype ejprinter
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Burkholder [mailto:fdanb@aol.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 11:25 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: OT: Photoshop CS4 upgrade overpriced

Hey Greg,

If you can get just the Photoshop CS4 upgrade for the price mentioned  
by Richard, then yes, you should go for it. The $600 you quote sounds  
like an upgrade for the entire suite of products. Adobe must figure if  
you're using that full batch of applications that you're making money  
with all of them. That isn't always the case of course.

CS4 is another of those upgrades that hook you like crack; it's really  
hard to go back to CS3 (I'm speaking just Photoshop here) after  
getting a taste of the "4". I'd also add that, with CS4, Adobe has  
finally moved to define Photoshop as the domain for serious image  
editors and not the stuff for casual users. The transition to CS4  
forces us to make some pretty major changes to the way we make  
selections and masks and modify them. Don't get me wrong; the changes  
are almost all for the good. It's just that the learning curve has  
been steepened somewhat for those who haven't had a good workflow to  
begin with. Make sense?

To throw a bit of a wrench into your decision process, the Extended  
version of Photoshop offers some neat capabilities that are missing  
from the Standard version of CS4. I don't think Adobe has an upgrade  
path from Standard to Extended so you best decide before purchasing.  
If memory serves, you can upgrade an older Standard version of CS2 or  
CS3 to the Extended version of CS4 at a fair price. Just don't expect  
to upgrade CS4 Standard to CS4 Extended for any price approaching  
reasonable. ;^)

Hope this helps!

Dan

info@DanBurkholder.com
www.DanBurkholder.com

On Mar 8, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Greg Schmitz wrote:

>
> I have Adobe Photoshop CS3 Creative Design Premium and can't decide  
> if I should upgrade to CS4.  It seems to me that Adobe's asking  
> price of $600 for an upgrade is "over the top."  Will I get $600  
> worth of improvement if I upgrade to CS4?  I'd be interested in   
> hearing from those of you that have upgraded to CS4 if you think the  
> upgrade was worth the money.  $600 is 2-weeks of work for me and I  
> am loath to give it to some Silicon Valley wonk so that he/she can  
> continue to drive their Porsche or BMW whenever they want to.
>
> --greg
>
>