Later today, in about four hours time, Adobe launch the new Creative Suite 5. For most of our readers that means a new version of Photoshop CS5 might be of interest.
I will certainly look forward to it and judging by the some of the early feature releases, then I think this will be a good update.
I am expecting Adobe's handling of the Canon RAW files to get better. The engine they have used in previous versions and Lightroom have not been good in my opinion, certainly on the later Canon models. However, I have recently had a quick play with Lightroom 3 beta 2 and the files look pretty good with the 7D.
I will do a more comprehensive blog on LR3 beta 2 when I have had some more hands on time with it.
CS5 will be launched as a standard or extended product, and either in full version or upgrade variant.
If you have CS2 or newer, you can get away with the upgrade. Older versions will see you shelling out around £600 or so.
Now on to pricing, which is where I start to get far more vexed about it.
In the US, the upgrade is scheduled to be $199, whereas with around a 1.5 $ to £ we pay....wait for it. Roughly the same.
But if you think that is bad, wait for this.
You can buy the boxed version with a DVD, delivery, cardboard etc from Adobe for £186, or you can download it for £192.
Now maybe I am naive, but I would have thought that logic says that downloading would be cheaper.
Anyway, it is not due to ship until early to mid May. I will wait until it has been out a couple or three months so that the early un paid 'beta testers' can find the bugs. Certainly, CS 4 had some pretty serious problems with some aspects on launch.
Martin
I am also using lightroom 3 beta 2 with the 7d raw files from yesterday (I find the canon software to slow for my liking) Be interested to see your findings.
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