wlaidlaw Posted October 4, 2008 Share #1 Posted October 4, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) I spent some time watching the pro's at work in Photokina on PS CS4. I am currently an enthusiastic and happy CS3 user on Mac. I am not sure that this update represents good value for money, especially at the UK price of £163 against the US $199. What do others think? I will probably miss an update like I did before, when I upgraded from CS to CS3. Are there any new features that people think are a WOW! I really want/must have that. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 Hi wlaidlaw, Take a look here Photoshop CS4 - worthwhile or overpriced. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
andybarton Posted October 4, 2008 Share #2 Posted October 4, 2008 There's usually one feature that makes me think "That's worth paying for", but I haven't seen one in CS4 over CS3. Yet. Not sure it's ready to download yet, is it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted October 4, 2008 Share #3 Posted October 4, 2008 Not available for download yet. I'll probably download it and then find that one feature <sigh>. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
35mmSummicron Posted October 4, 2008 Share #4 Posted October 4, 2008 I think once OSX 10.6 and Adobe CS4 (particularly Photoshop CS4) are released, they will prove to be quite a good combination. 10.6 is said to be pretty much like 10.5 right now, however they are dropping PowerPC support and stripping out all code related so it is meant for Intel chips only. This will essentially mean lots more free diskspace, and a much more efficient and streamlined OS. Adobe CS4 for mac will NOT be 64bit, however I recall reading that they are trying to make more efficient use of multicore computers which is more or less the norm today; that is more than 2 cores. (rumors are that quad-core mac laptops, and 12-16 core towers are going to be released this fall). CS4 will also utilize hardware graphics acceleration, which means if you have a fast and capable graphics card, it will offset the calculating load from your CPU theoretically making things faster/more efficient. Now both softwares look good on paper, how well and how fast they run in practice is another matter. I am looking forward to both, however will not be the FIRST to upgrade--always safer to wait and see if there are horror/disaster stories online /a Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomasis7 Posted October 4, 2008 Share #5 Posted October 4, 2008 CS4 will also utilize hardware graphics acceleration, which means if you have a fast and capable graphics card, it will offset the calculating load from your CPU theoretically making things faster/more efficient. /a I love this feature. I will test how it behaves with my Ati 4850 which has enough power to render 3d Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted October 4, 2008 Author Share #6 Posted October 4, 2008 I think once OSX 10.6 and Adobe CS4 (particularly Photoshop CS4) are released, they will prove to be quite a good combination. 10.6 is said to be pretty much like 10.5 right now, however they are dropping PowerPC support and stripping out all code related so it is meant for Intel chips only. This will essentially mean lots more free diskspace, and a much more efficient and streamlined OS. Adobe CS4 for mac will NOT be 64bit, however I recall reading that they are trying to make more efficient use of multicore computers which is more or less the norm today; that is more than 2 cores. (rumors are that quad-core mac laptops, and 12-16 core towers are going to be released this fall). CS4 will also utilize hardware graphics acceleration, which means if you have a fast and capable graphics card, it will offset the calculating load from your CPU theoretically making things faster/more efficient. Now both softwares look good on paper, how well and how fast they run in practice is another matter. I am looking forward to both, however will not be the FIRST to upgrade--always safer to wait and see if there are horror/disaster stories online /a All this may mean I have to replace my still excellent, G5 Dual 2.3 Ghz Powermac, which as well as my "heavy duty" UK computer, also acts as the family worldwide VPN server. The new medical software suite my wife wants to run for her physiotherapy clinics, is Windows as well, which means either VM-Fusion or Parallels, so that is another reason we will have to go all Intel and replace the Powermac and my wife's home office G5 iMac. I am guessing that the hardware graphics accelerator really only comes into play on a serious desktop with a powerful Nvidia or similar graphics card. It would not provide much advantage for the graphics processor in the average Mac laptop or even iMac. I think the public release date of CS4 is October 16. Like Andy, I will probably download a trial to see it rings my bell. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanG Posted October 4, 2008 Share #7 Posted October 4, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) For some time now there has been speculation about CS4 supporting Nvidia's graphic technology. I think specific Nvidia graphic cards will be required for this benefit. Adobe CS4 To Be Accelerated By NVIDIA GPUs - HotHardware Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photoskeptic Posted October 4, 2008 Share #8 Posted October 4, 2008 Wilson, I'm with you. I'm perfectly happy with CS3 and the latest RAW upgrade. I'm more of a minimalist with PS anyway, only using a few controls to bring my images into my perspective. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wda Posted October 7, 2008 Share #9 Posted October 7, 2008 Oh dear; I missed out moving from CS2-CS3 because I got engrossed in learning and liking Lightroom 1. So I have two problems; do I upgrade both or continue mastering what I have? Certainly I would like aspects of the latest LR2, but not the aggravation which comes with upgrading. Anyone else facing my dilemma? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobey bilek Posted October 7, 2008 Share #10 Posted October 7, 2008 Wait and see what happens. Right now my friends can`t move imags from Illustrator to In Design without it crashing. This is a MAJOR bug yet to be resolved for 10.5. saving and placing into In Design does not work the same for vector based images. I don`t see much for photographers in CS4. Once you open JPEG and multiple Raws, how much more do we need? A little burn/dodge should cover it unless we get into combining images. I think the pro retouchers have something. Then you may want the raw support for new cameras if you dont do DNG or JPEG. This would be Canon and Nikon guys. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted October 7, 2008 Author Share #11 Posted October 7, 2008 David, I think the Leica digital RAW world splits threes ways. Capture One, LR and Aperture. They all have their pros and cons but once you have learnt one, the transition to any other one is painful. I tried to transition to Aperture but found it just too much effort and I really like the ICC profiles approach of Capture One. The one thing you can guarantee with an upgrade is that they delete or change that feature you really like. My only beef on C1 is there is still no profile for a Ricoh GX100/200 or GRII. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootist Posted October 8, 2008 Share #12 Posted October 8, 2008 Oh dear; I missed out moving from CS2-CS3 because I got engrossed in learning and liking Lightroom 1. So I have two problems; do I upgrade both or continue mastering what I have? Certainly I would like aspects of the latest LR2, but not the aggravation which comes with upgrading. Anyone else facing my dilemma? Never really like LR but I did upgrade to LR2, still don't really care for it. I'll probably upgrade to CS4 just to stay current and access to whatever version of ACR is included and is updated. Adobe is notorious for dropping all support of ACR for older versions of PS. I've spend $199, or more, on more frivolous things without batting a eye. IMHO the difference between LR 1 and 2 is minimal in the learning curve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjt1 Posted October 8, 2008 Share #13 Posted October 8, 2008 For me the reason for shelling out is CS4's native 64 bit support in windows. This means PS has access to more than 3.3GB of memory and I can make large panoramas without it swapping all the time. Now memory is getting cheaper (I have 8gb and it was something like UKP 70 for the lot) I think we will see more apps having native 64 bit support. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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