sorry more photoshop/elements choosing questions!

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ukphd

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Name
Nancy
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Hi

I'm really sorry to ask again but I just can't decide and need some more help - sorry!

I have some funding to buy software from work and I need to buy Adobe Premiere. In addition I can get some photo editing software and I posted before about whether to go for full photoshop, elements or lightroom.

Although I have funding I have a limited budget and whilst I think I have enough for any of the options below it would be better if I can save some money so I can use it for other aspects of the project being funded. I can only get the software through one specific supplier via my employers (University) so I can't shop around to get bigger discounts or whatever.

So here are the prices for the software (I'm unsure what "media" means... this is info from my Uni software person):

Adobe Premiere

£165 -
+ £19 for the media

Premiere Elements

£22 -
+ £19 for the media


Adobe Photoshop CS5


£104 -
+ £19 for the media


Photoshop Elements


£22 -
+ £19 for the media


Adobe Lightroom 3

£27 -
+ £19 for the media

Alternatively you can get Premiere Elements & Photoshop Elements (not Lightroom) bundled together for

£41 -
+ £19 for the media

or

Adobe Production Premium which includes Photoshop Extended, Premiere Extended plus Illustrator and others

£268 -
+ £19 for the media


So what should I do! I'm at a loss :( I think I want lightroom but then I also want some sort of photoshop. I don't know if elements for premier and photoshop is enough or not?
What would other people do?

Sorry - I'm dithering!
Any help much appreciated
:)
 
It really depends on exactly what you want the software for.

In most cases a home user environment will find Premiere El more than sufficient. More to the point, Premiere is one of Adobe's most resource hungry pieces of software, so unless you have a very high spec PC/Mac you may well be restricted to Elements anyway (Prem CS5 requires a 62bit architecture to run properly).

As for shopping around, those are Educational Use prices that you've quoted, so you are unlikely to get them much cheaper elsewhere.

Media is the physical resource that the software arrives on, ie a CD, so the initial price will be for the licence and the media cost for the actual physical packaging, unless you opt for a downloaded version.
 
DemiLion said:
It really depends on exactly what you want the software for.

In most cases a home user environment will find Premiere El more than sufficient. More to the point, Premiere is one of Adobe's most resource hungry pieces of software, so unless you have a very high spec PC/Mac you may well be restricted to Elements anyway (Prem CS5 requires a 62bit architecture to run properly).

As for shopping around, those are Educational Use prices that you've quoted, so you are unlikely to get them much cheaper elsewhere.

Media is the physical resource that the software arrives on, ie a CD, so the initial price will be for the licence and the media cost for the actual physical packaging, unless you opt for a downloaded version.
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Thank you. I'm doing some basic video editing for this project so does it sound like premiere elements will be enough?

I'm not entirely sure what a 63bit architecture means :thinking: I'm getting a new laptop - probably this one : http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe....t/Portege-R700-1DD/1096901/toshibaShop/false/

will that be suitable?

With regard to photoshop vs elements I guess there's a bit of me that thinks maybe I should go for the full version while I have the chance, but then again maybe I wouldn't use it to it's full potential anyway... hmmmm
 
You wont be able to use Premiere Pro (CS5) on that laptop.

The details are here under 64 bit compatibility:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/faq/

Edit:

Even given the 32 v 64 bit problem, I'd hesitate to try and run Premiere Pro on anything less than a system with 4Gb RAM (3-3.5 in real terms), and at least a Dual if not a Quad processor.
The CS4 version, and Elements too for that matter, really do suck up all available resources when it comes to rendering.
 
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Who will be using the software and what will they be using it for?

I guess the most important thing is - do you need Premiere Pro (in which case I'd go for the Production Premium package) or will Premier Elements suffice (in which case I'd go for the combination with Photoshop Elements and Lightroom)?
 
hollis_f said:
Who will be using the software and what will they be using it for?

I guess the most important thing is - do you need Premiere Pro (in which case I'd go for the Production Premium package) or will Premier Elements suffice (in which case I'd go for the combination with Photoshop Elements and Lightroom)?
Click to expand...


I'll be using it, together with an assistant (as yet this position isn't filled so unsure of their skills). We have techinical support for software help as well. I'm thinking maybe elements will suffice?
 
DemiLion said:
You wont be able to use Premiere Pro (CS5) on that laptop.

The details are here under 64 bit compatibility:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/faq/
Click to expand...

Oh ok - darn! been searching for the laptop with the specs I needed for ages and have struggled to find what I needed - thought I finally had! Glad you replied on this thread - thanks!

Premiere elements would be ok though?
 
DemiLion said:
You wont be able to use Premiere Pro (CS5) on that laptop.

The details are here under 64 bit compatibility:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/faq/

Edit:

Even given the 32 v 64 bit problem, I'd hesitate to try and run Premiere Pro on anything less than a system with 4Gb RAM (3-3.5 in real terms), and at least a Dual if not a Quad processor.
The CS4 version, and Elements too for that matter, really do suck up all available resources when it comes to rendering.
Click to expand...


Sorry just saw your edit.
Oh ok - I'm at a loss now then. I have a budget of about £1200 for a laptop. I need it to be light (under 2kg) as I travel to the field a lot. It needs good battery (hence why I was attracted to this one with the almost 9 hour battery life - I know it will be less in reality but it's a good starts!) and a decent sized hard drive - ideally over 300gb. I was hoping for 8gb of RAM, dedicated graphics RAM and i7. I can not find a laptop that matches those criteria.

I've been primarily looking at sony or toshiba as I know they both cope well with humidity at my field site (from personal experience) and am nervous to try an unknown (for me) brand...
 
Can I ask why you are buying a laptop?

For the same price (in fact much less given the VAT element), you could get a very good QUAD processor desktop, with 8Gb RAM, 64 bit OS and an decent 20"+ monitor.

Unlike photographs (in most cases) Video rendering can take hours to process properly, and unless there is an absolute need for portability, you would be much better of with a static unit both in cost and capability terms.
 
DemiLion said:
Can I ask why you are buying a laptop?

For the same price (in fact much less given the VAT element), you could get a very good QUAD processor desktop, with 8Gb RAM, 64 bit OS and an decent 20"+ monitor.

Unlike photographs (in most cases) Video rendering can take hours to process properly, and unless there is an absolute need for portability, you would be much better of with a static unit both in cost and capability terms.
Click to expand...

I'm getting a laptop as I conduct research in Indonesia for 4 - 6 months a year and that laptop has to come with me. Sadly I don't have enough budget to buy both a desktop and laptop :(
 
Forget the Portégé straight away then. They are designed to be lightweight exec business models, and really aren't robust enough for field work.

Does in the field mean that literally, or will you be in an office; ie is the lightweight requirement for air travel, or onsite mobility?
 
DemiLion said:
Forget the Portégé straight away then. They are designed to be lightweight exec business models, and really aren't robust enough for field work.

Does in the field mean that literally, or will you be in an office; ie is the lightweight requirement for air travel, or onsite mobility?
Click to expand...

Literally the field. remote location, 3 hrs from nearest city.
I've used toshiba's there in the past - first a satellite and then a tecra - both survived with no problems but they are heavy so really need something lighter as I simply can't manage all my gear anymore! :)
 
The Sat & Tecra are different beasts. I supported all three when working for a firm of Insurance Loss Adjusters, and the Port will not survive those conditions, it really isn't built for it. The Sony's are overpriced as far as I'm concerned!!

You have the age old problem of Portability v Usability, and one of them is going to have to give. You can easily get a laptop that will fit into your budget and specs above (500Gb HD, 8gb of RAM, dedicated graphics RAM and i7) but you will have to build some bigger muscles.

Give me 15 min and I'll give you an example spec.
 
DemiLion said:
The Sat & Tecra are different beasts. I supported all three when working for a firm of Insurance Loss Adjusters, and the Port will not survive those conditions, it really isn't built for it. The Sony's are overpriced as far as I'm concerned!!

You have the age old problem of Portability v Usability, and one of them is going to have to give. You can easily get a laptop that will fit into your budget and specs above (500Gb HD, 8gb of RAM, dedicated graphics RAM and i7) but you will have to build some bigger muscles.

Give me 15 min and I'll give you an example spec.
Click to expand...

thanks :)

Problem is I'm fairly small (5ft), I barely manage my camera gear and current laptop (the tecra) and I'm well over the airline handluggage allowance with that (they have started refusing people now with bags over 5kg - my OH got stung by that travelling to Kenya - how on earth can anyone manage a laptop and camera gear under 5kg! :) ).

ETA I completely agree about the sony's being overpriced! but they are the only other laptop I know survives out there. I've seen Dell's, Mac's, HP's etc all fail after a week or so at the field site so am obviously fairly worried about straying far from toshiba and sony :)
 
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Well the following probably wont interest you in light of what you have said about Dells, but in general I have found them to be fairly robust and have used them in some semi harsh enviroments (horse trials). A lot of the survivability is down to how the unit is looked after, and Tecras are just as vulnerable as the rest in that respect!

The following weighs the same as your current PC, but would/should support what you need in performance terms:

Components
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64bit- English
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache)
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
1 year of coverage included with your PC
No Accidental Damage Support
McAfee® SecurityCenter 30 Day trial version
Adobe® Photoshop® Elements + Premiere® Elements Bundle - English
Black Leather back cover : 40cm (15.6") Truelife 1080p Full HD WLED Edge to Edge Display
8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]
500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with Roxio Easy CD and DVD Burn software
Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

Also Includes
9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 565v graphics

£1,216.17 VAT Inc
Click to expand...

Those are the specs of a Dell XPS Studio 16 quoted directly from the website. Dell do Ed discounts, so you might well get it cheaper if you call them direct, and it's also worth noting that the price includes PS & Prem Elements (drop £51 off the price to exclude them).

The XPS' are pretty robust, the only downside is the leather casing, but there is no option to exclude that unfortunately.

Battery life is circa 4.5 hours (similar to the Tecra), but an extra battery is probably your best bet for whatever you decide to get.

Weightwise it clocks in at 2.4 kg, which is heavier than you want, but I think that you will really struggle to find something sub 2kg for the specs that you need.
 
DemiLion said:
Well the following probably wont interest you in light of what you have said about Dells, but in general I have found them to be fairly robust and have used them in some semi harsh enviroments (horse trials). A lot of the survivability is down to how the unit is looked after, and Tecras are just as vulnerable as the rest in that respect!

The following weighs the same as your current PC, but would/should support what you need in performance terms:



Those are the specs of a Dell XPS Studio 16 quoted directly from the website. Dell do Ed discounts, so you might well get it cheaper if you call them direct, and it's also worth noting that the price includes PS & Prem Elements (drop £51 off the price to exclude them).

The XPS' are pretty robust, the only downside is the leather casing, but there is no option to exclude that unfortunately.

Battery life is circa 4.5 hours (similar to the Tecra), but an extra battery is probably your best bet for whatever you decide to get.

Weightwise it clocks in at 2.4 kg, which is heavier than you want, but I think that you will really struggle to find something sub 2kg for the specs that you need.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that. I will definitely consider it. I am nervous of Dell's as I've seen a few not survive out there but maybe that was just bad luck. My uni has to buy the laptop and software so hopefully their suppliers may be cheaper but sadly I can't shop around at all :( It is a bit heavy but.. hmm will go have a proper look at it now.

ETA why on earth would they put leather on a laptop :cuckoo:
 
ukphd said:
ETA why on earth would they put leather on a laptop :cuckoo:
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That's because the XPS range was originally marketed at high end gaming geeks as a rival to Alienware, before Dell bought them, and the design style has stuck!
 
DemiLion said:
That's because the XPS range was originally marketed at high end gaming geeks as a rival to Alienware, before Dell bought them, and the design style has stuck!
Click to expand...

ah ok!

I've had a look at the dell and the specs do seem good, but it just seems so massive and I am just not sure I want to get another beast of a laptop after the tecra. Battery life doesn't seem too great either (I struggle with the tecra) but as you say I could get a spare battery but that's more funds etc. why oh why can't they make lighter weight laptops! ;)

I could up my budget to £1400 max I think - I probably still won't get a lightweight one with the specs I want though. The sony Z series seems like it might fit the bill but the cheapest I could work out was nearly £1700 I think :(
 
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That's not a bad price for a Sony. Slightly more memory for the graphics would have been nicer, but it should run OK.

Just don't get a Pink one! :p
 
DemiLion said:
That's not a bad price for a Sony. Slightly more memory for the graphics would have been nicer, but it should run OK.

Just don't get a Pink one! :p
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:lol: no chance! :)

It's apparently under 2kg too - though I had to call sony to check that but 2 different sales people told me it was so hopefully it is! :) Got to hope my University can buy direct from Sony now as I don't imagine you can get the customised laptops from other suppliers - knowing my luck they won't be able to now!

Thanks so much for your help - really appreciate it :thumbs:

I think I'll probably be going for the photoshop and premiere elements package plus lightroom to save a few pennies (so I can afford the sony!) too :)
 
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Just bear in mind that the price offer ends on Monday!

Have fun with it! :)
 
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