Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

CS3 vs. CS5

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
74,818
45,151
I have CS3 on my Mac but its been giving me some headaches, with updates, ACR is not up to date and generally its a little long in the tooth. So my question is two fold,

Are there folks out there still on CS3 like me? What tips do you use to keep it stable, i.e., remove that auto-update process from failing and/or updating CS3.

Secondly what's the advantage of going with CS5 at this point? I'm surviving with CS3, but I wonder if its worthwhile to bite the bullet.
I see the comparison on adobe's site PS comparison but in real world experiences, is there a large improvement in how people use it, i.e., the additions really do make a large difference to photographers.

I posted this in the Photography forum mostly because my usage is tweaking my photos. I use some plugins like Topaz's DeNoise and other minor touch ups that Lightroom/Aperture don't handle as well.

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
I upgrade every two version of PS and went from CS3 to CS5. To me, the additions are worth it. You'll have to decide if having a stable platform and better features are worth the cost to you.
 
I still use CS3. I would still be on the original CS if I hadn't switched from a Windows box to a Mac back in '07. My only problem with CS3 is that they no longer provide camera support for newer cameras.

I have no issues at all when using it with my 1DMark IIn, as PS reads the RAW files just fine. Now, for my 5D Mark II, PS doesn't read my RAW files, and I have to do an intermediary step by converting to DNG using the free Adobe DNG converter.

Other than that bit of incompatibility, I see no appreciable reason for me to upgrade to the newer versions. Adobe seems to do maintenance and incremental feature updates but charge the consumers as if they are completely redesigned programs or major upgrades.
 
maflynn said:
Secondly what's the advantage of going with CS5 at this point? I'm surviving with CS3, but I wonder if its worthwhile to bite the bullet.
I see the comparison on adobe's site PS comparison but in real world experiences, is there a large improvement in how people use it, i.e., the additions really do make a large difference to photographers.
Click to expand...

HDR and healing have gotten better, if you use them, it's probably not a bad idea to upgrade. If you're just worried about raw conversion, Raw Photo Processor (RPP) is a great alternative to ACR, just be sure to read the entire help file prior to using.

Paul
 
maflynn said:
Secondly what's the advantage of going with CS5 at this point? I'm surviving with CS3, but I wonder if its worthwhile to bite the bullet.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is worth it as there are several new features that you may find useful and more importantly, the performance and stability of the apps has been improved quite a bit.

But I'd wait for CS5.5 which Adobe will release next month.
 
Evoken said:
But I'd wait for CS5.5 which Adobe will release next month.
Click to expand...

There is no Photoshop CS5.5 as it was not updated in the CS5.5 Suites. The programs that were updated are: InDesign, FlashPro, Flash Catalyst, Dreamweaver, PremierePro, AfterEffects, Audition, Device Central, Media Encoder and Acrobat Pro. Unless you need to update one of the suites, there's no reason to wait.:D

As to whether it's worth upgrading, it depends on how you use Photoshop. If you do a lot of painting, the new brush engine is pretty amazing. Also, If you do a lot of masking, the mask (introduced inCS4, refined in CS5) panel gives you an enormous amount of control to your masking. Mix these 2 lesser known features together with the big name items such as 64 bit, ACR 6, Content Aware Fill, new HDR, 3D... it's a big improvement over CS3, but again, it all depends on how you use photoshop.

If you really want to get the most bang for your buck, wait for CS6 when it comes out next year. :D
 
I'm in a similar situation using CS3. I use Lightroom 3 for raw processing and then take these files into Photoshop as PSDs. This bypasses the outdated ACR processing. I also use Adobe DNG convertor for my 5DII raw files but this is just a better solution in general - future proof and smaller file sizes.

Other than that I don't see anything in CS5 that justifies the high upgrade fee. It's a business decision for me and I can't see the upgrade increasing my profits enough to pay for itself. The only thing I don't like with CS3 is that Illustrator is a bit unstable on Snow Leopard but Photoshop seems fine. I'll see what CS6 brings.
 
steveash said:
I also use Adobe DNG convertor for my 5DII raw files but this is just a better solution in general - future proof and smaller file sizes.
Click to expand...
Slightly off topic. Do you convert from RAW to DNG before importing into LR3 or do you let LR3 convert them to DNG. Is there an advantage to convert your images to DNG using Adobe's stand alone converter?
 
maflynn said:
Slightly off topic. Do you convert from RAW to DNG before importing into LR3 or do you let LR3 convert them to DNG. Is there an advantage to convert your images to DNG using Adobe's stand alone converter?
Click to expand...

I use DNG Convertor to convert the raw files directly from my flash cards to the hard drive with it set to load up when I plug in a card reader. It cuts out the need to transfer and then delete the files. I did this before I got Lightroom and have just continued doing it as it seems to work well. I don't think there is any difference which bit of software does the job.
 
The content-aware fill alone is worth upgrading, I thought it would be a gimmick but has been extremely handy.

Also AE is much improved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back