Price reduction for PRE7

[Chuck Engels]

All those 49.99 first-time buyers, not upgraders, means more potential purchasers of Steve and Chuck's books and more forum members

Thanks Peter, that's right, we need to get the word out !!!

[Bobby]

For you Costco members, the latest coupon book has $30 off Photoshop Elements 7, which should then be $50. Can't tell yet as the sale doesn't start until 3/16 but $80 is their regular price.

I am really torn (again) as to whether to upgrade my PS CS2 to CS4 or just fall back to Elements. I have been doing less and less photo work lately and one of the only more advanced uses I made of CS2 was to edit PRE menus. Now that I have switched to DVDSA I don't think I need to edit menus any more.

That will save me $130 and get me off the CSx treadmill (i.e. $180 or so upgrade every 18 months). Any opinions?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I am really torn (again) as to whether to upgrade my PS CS2 to CS4 or just fall back to Elements. I have been doing less and less photo work lately and one of the only more advanced uses I made of CS2 was to edit PRE menus. Now that I have switched to DVDSA I don't think I need to edit menus any more.

That will save me $130 and get me off the CSx treadmill (i.e. $180 or so upgrade every 18 months). Any opinions?

I agree with you, Bobby, about that 'treadmill' thing. At present I am on CS4 but there will come a time - maybe it is now, maybe it is when I move to Win7 - when I'll just say enough, and stick with the version I have.

As an example, I'm still using PrElv2, though not for much work these days and the eventual upgrade to Winv7 will finally kill that off )

[Bob]

I am really torn (again) as to whether to upgrade my PS CS2 to CS4 or just fall back to Elements. I have been doing less and less photo work lately and one of the only more advanced uses I made of CS2 was to edit PRE menus. Now that I have switched to DVDSA I don't think I need to edit menus any more. That will save me $130 and get me off the CSx treadmill (i.e. $180 or so upgrade every 18 months). Any opinions?

Opinions? Well, you've already skipped one upgrade cycle which puts the prorated cost per cycle of upgrading to CS4 in about the same range as having upgraded Photoshop Elements every cycle. And, you could skip another cycle and upgrade to CS5 if you so desire -- Adobe allows upgrades from the previous 3 versions. For me, there is no going back to Photoshop Elements. I use too many of the features that aren't in Elements. And, it's not just the advanced functions. There is a lot more flexibility to the basic capability. I would feel like I had my hands tied if I had to work around the reduced functionality. I have CS3 and the question for me is whether to go to CS4 or wait for CS5. And, I haven't decided that yet. However, CS3 added functionality that made it very worthwhile for me to have upgraded from CS2. I felt it was well worth the upgrade cost. And, I have to admit, CS4 does have some features that are seductive to me.

Bottom line, it's going to depend on what features are important to you and how you work. If you don't plan on upgrading Photoshop every cycle, cost really isn't that much of an issue and you may as well stay with Photoshop.

[Bobby]

Good points Bob and John. Unfortunately the upgrade to CS4 isn't an option as my newer PC for video and image work has Vista and my old CS2 won't run. But I agree that not upgrading every cycle will amortize the price down.

BTW I really regret putting Vista on the new PC and could easily have lived with XP until Win7 comes out. I suppose I could re-build the new PC with Vista (I have a spare license around here somewhere) but not worth the effort, I think.

I also looked at the screenshots for Elements last night and I know I am going to be disappointed.

OK, the order for CS4 goes in today.