Should I Buy Adobe Photoshop CS5 ? Is it Worth the Cost to Upgrade ?

Should I buy CS5? Is Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 or Photoshop CS5 Extended worth the price?

Adobe Photoshop CS5 has many new features for general users and for photographers in particular.
See: Adobe Photoshop CS5 What Are the New Features for Photographers

But, are these new features worth the cost of upgrading to you?

My conclusions are below.

 

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The answer of whether a CS5 upgrade is worth the price to you will depend on several points you must answer for yourself:

• How do you use Photoshop?Click to jump to the appropriate conclusion
  • Are you a hobbyist?
  • Are you a serious digital photo enthusiast?
  • Are you a digital artist?
  • Are you a professional photographer, artist, designer?
  • Are you a student or teacher?

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• What version you have now?
  • CS4 – There are significant and minor changes from Photoshop CS3
  • CS3 – Major changes from Photoshop CS2
  • CS2 – So many major improvements from CS
  • CS – Very significant changes from 7 – almost a different program
  • 7 – Wow! You should really consider upgrading now.
  • Pre-7 versions – This is like sooo last millennium.
  • Photoshop Elements (any version)
  • No Photoshop version

• How many hours do you spend on Photoshop?
  • Do you open Photoshop once in a while?
  • Use Photoshop several times a month?
  • Do you use Photoshop every day?

• Do you use Photoshop for work?
  • At a job?
  • As an independent contractor
  • In a design field?

• How soon do you plan to use the new features?
  • In a few weeks
  • For the Fall 21010 semester
  • After I finish a few more projects
  • Immediately

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Conclusions:

• If you are a professional photographer, image maker, artist, or designer of any kind
  • You should definitely upgrade to CS5 for the following benefits:
    • Improved workflow features
    • Better performance
    • 64-bit support
    • Enhanced ACR 6 RAW processing
    • Lens Correction Lens Profiles
    • Content-Aware Fill
    • Painting + Brush improvements
    • HDR Pro
    • Refine Edge revisions
    • GPU Graphics processor improvements

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• If you are serious about your digital photography
  • You should seriously consider the CS5 upgrade for pretty much the same reasons as above
    • Enhanced ACR 6 RAW processing
    • Lens Correction Lens Profiles
    • Content-Aware Fill
    • Painting + Brush improvements
    • HDR Pro
    • Refine Edge revisions
    • GPU Graphics processor improvements
    • 64-bit support

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• If you are a hobbyist
  • This is less clear. The learning curve is still very steep
    • You will learn with the latest technologies
    • Sooner or later you will want these features anyway
    • >If you spend much time at Photoshop you will at least be in the current loop
    • The new features make your images better, faster, with less work

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• If you are a Digital Artist
  • You will benefit greatly from many of Photoshop CS5’s new features
    • The Painting + Brush improvements are massive over previous versions
    • Content-Aware Fill can save you a lot of time
    • GPU Graphics processor improvements accelerates the visuals
    • The other feautre of benefit to photographers may help you as well

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• If you are a student now, or a teacher
  • Buy an Educational or Academic versionwhile you are a student, or teacher
    • You can still use it after you finish classes
    • You can use it now or then for commercial work
    • You can upgrade in the future with no penalty as if it isn’t an academic version

Adobe Discounts for Students + Teachers from JourneyEd – CS5

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• If you will be using the new features immediately
  • Definitely pre-order CS5 now!!!

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• If you won’t be using the program right away
  • Wait
    • In the digital world things change all the time
      • If you won’t be using a camera, computer, software right away
        • It will be cheaper eventually (Photoshop is generally an exception, price drops are rare)
        • May have better features when you decide to buy

The Best Prices from the Adobe USA Store

I hope you found this helpful. If you have further comments or questions, please use the
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Cheers