CS3 vs CS4 - any reason to upgrade?

There is not a lot of difference really. One or two things stand out but I wouldn't have paid the full upgrade price but would have waited for CS5. I like a few of the small things like the clone tool which shows you what will appear before it does.
 
I thought about upgrading from CS3 to CS4 - but then realised that I was only using a fraction of the tools that are available in CS3 so where's the point upgrading?

The only thing that would make it worthwhile for me is the fact that you can't load any of the revised Adobe RAW converters inot CS3. This means that if you buy one of the latest DSLR's from any manufacturer, you will not be able to download or edit your RAW images in CS3 - you must buy CS4 to be able to use the latest Adobe RAW converter which contains the program codes for the newer models such as the D3x etc. Bit of a con job by adobe.
 
I found CS4 to be much improved over CS3. First, it seems to perform better. CS3 was a real resource hog compared with CS2, but now with CS4 it's good again.

Being able to see what you're cloning makes it much easier to do it accurately.

The biggest thing for me is the new adjustment layer panel. So much quicker and easier to use than in CS3.

I certainly think the improvements warrant trying CS4.
 
Big Dog said:
The only thing that would make it worthwhile for me is the fact that you can't load any of the revised Adobe RAW converters inot CS3. This means that if you buy one of the latest DSLR's from any manufacturer, you will not be able to download or edit your RAW images in CS3 - you must buy CS4 to be able to use the latest Adobe RAW converter which contains the program codes for the newer models such as the D3x etc. Bit of a con job by adobe.
Click to expand...

I load all my images into LR from the camera. Once this is done CS3 or CS4 will load them just the same.
 
Thanks for the feedback...just given CS4 a tryout after reading some of the enhancements....the "normal" CS4 application isn't much different on first impressions, ACR however is much better - the graduation and localised editing brush are brilliant

simon
 
If you want it for the ACR features have a look to see if Lightroom 2.x is cheaper than upgrading Photoshop to CS4...
 
The other real improvement is in the dodge and burn tools. Less likely to produce those horrible greys.
 
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