Elements 5 to CS2

[bobttt]

Is there some sort of an upgrade from Elements 5 toCS2 ? What I had in mine is to get experience with CS2 then upgrade to CS3. That way would be easier on the pocket book.

bobt

[Chuck S.]

Bob, I think this is right, but hopefully someone else will chime in.


Whenever Adobe introduces a new version of their software, they almost immediately stop selling the previous version, i.e., no shelf-clearing big sales.
Upgrades from Elements to CS have been few and far between. Occasional deals for $300 US or thereabouts have surfaced, often in concert with a hardware (scanner/printer) purchase. There may be some in effect now, but I don't know of any.
With respect to buying CS2 outright from someone who has upgraded to CS3, I believe that's precluded by the upgrade restrictions, i.e., when one upgrades from CS2 (or earlier) to CS3, they are required to 'retire' the earlier version.Sounds like "Catch-22" a bit. In my case, I took advantage of a long-ago one-time upgrade deal from PSE2 to Photoshop 7, and have been upgrading both along the way. In hindsight, I should have done some "generation-skipping" (PSE4 was blah, as was PS CS).

My current configuration is PSE5/CS2/Lightroom with the CS3 upgrade on the way. Truth be told, 90+% of my photo post-processing needs (I'm not an artist, so no montages or other creations) are satisfied with the incredible PSE5 supplemented with Grant's Tools, ACR 4.0 plug-in, and other plug-ins. Thanks to all the participants in this forum, plus Corey Barker, workarounds to PSE limitations are brought forward on a regular basis. What a wonderful community!

[TonyW]

Chuck: I think you're right. I haven't looked but I doubt Adobe are offering CS2 any more (although the Canon offer is still listed http://store.adobe.com/store/products/master.jhtml?id=catCanon) but the best upgrade was $299 (US and Canada only). Then $199 to go from CS2 to CS3. So not too different from the $549 to upgrade from PSE5 to CS3 standard.

So unless you can find a legitimate copy of CS2 for less than $300 you might just as well go the direct route and get the benefit of the new features in CS3 (which are excellent). And if your CS2 isn't strictly legit then you'll run into problems trying to upgrade and then you would be out of pocket.

Or wait around and see if there are any better PSE5 to CS3 upgrade offers but I suspect that might be a long wait.

Tony