Photoshop CC - Finally, I couldn´t resist

[Colin Utz]

Tomorrow, Dec 2nd, the offer to get Photoshop CC + Lightroom for € 12,29 per month, without having an older version of Photoshop CSx, ends. The last days, I spent hours in the internet, to figure out the pros and cons of this offer.

 

Finally, I subscribed. 

 

I´m a beer drinker. € 12 are 4 beers in my local pub. I´m a smoker. € 12 are 2 packages.

 

What do you think?

[Betty LaRue]

I think you made a good deal.  I also took the offer and it is nice not to have to agonize whether to buy the next update because of one new feature that I think I have to have.  We'll get those updates as they roll out.

 

It installed fine on my laptop, but on my iMac, there are some pieces missing in the installation that keeps it from working.  I bought CS6 not that long before CC was offered, so I've been using that.  Lightroom installed just fine.  With a recent trip and everything else going on, I've not had a block of time to call Adobe and get it fixed.  I can't download again, since as far as Adobe is concerned, I've done it twice.  So I'll have to call them, go through the long "hold" again, then get them to clear a new download.

 

I actually had a glitch with the laptop.  Initially it worked great.  Then there was an update.  All of a sudden when I clicked on bridge, I got the Firefox icon in the middle of the bridge window.  I quit using it and just worked on my bought copy of CS6.  Then I got a new update, and that cleared up the problem on my laptop.  Weird.

[DHill]

I'm very curious as to what there is in Photoshop CC and not in CS5, that people are finding useful to prepare Alamy images.

 

Note: I'm not thinking about RAW conversion here as Lightroom does that - and it's cheaper than CC.

 

Is there a return on investment in going for the CC while it's still at USD120/year?

[Jools Elliott]

Curious question. If you go for this deal, how long do you get the package at 12€ odd a month?

 

To be hone, I only really want PS and not Lightroom.

[MDM]

I'm very curious as to what there is in Photoshop CC and not in CS5, that people are finding useful to prepare Alamy images.

 

Note: I'm not thinking about RAW conversion here as Lightroom does that - and it's cheaper than CC.

 

Is there a return on investment in going for the CC while it's still at USD120/year?

 

Maybe I missed something but I don;t think there was much in the way of new features to interest photographers. The most significant change happened under the covers - the completely new graphics engine which makes it really fast to zoom around images. And if you didn't use Lightroom 4 or later, then the new ACR 7 is a lot better than ACR 6. I guess this is the reason Adobe have gone to subscription - there is not a lot more they can actually add to Photoshop in the way of features to entice photographers to upgrade.

 

The offer looks good for anybody who doesn't have CS5 or CS6 perpetual. It's good for a year after which I expect it will increase in price.

[Callie]

I'm still deciding on this one, but I am very tempted. I do have CS5 and LR4 though, so I'm not so sure on the advantages. I was considering it for the video capabilities as it is the extended version which mine isn't, but after having tried the software for a few days, the video processing isn't so impressive anyway. Not sure now but must decide quick, it is a good offer - discount price is for one year, after that it increases to regular price. 

[Abiyoyo]

Always the same history. 12,29 €/month or 8,78£/month (that is 10,5€ today), or those US $9.99/month (7,35€/month). Three different prices for the same package. To be honest I do not understand. The same SW from Microsoft, McAffe, etc.

[Mike@Meonshore]

I'm still deciding on this one, but I am very tempted. I do have CS5 and LR4 though, so I'm not so sure on the advantages. I was considering it for the video capabilities as it is the extended version which mine isn't, but after having tried the software for a few days, the video processing isn't so impressive anyway. Not sure now but must decide quick, it is a good offer - discount price is for one year, after that it increases to regular price. 

 

The discounted price doesn't increase after one year. If you take it up on the current offer price then that is the price you are paying. It is guaranteed for the first year, and Adobe have stated that they don't plan to increase it. No company could commit to never raise prices.

 

The offer price for non CS3 or above owners expires tomorrow I think, and the CS3 or above deal expires at the end of the year after that it is back to the $19.99 price (but only if you haven't already taken it out).

 

As for the advantages, well CS6 might not be a great improvement in the core of the product beyond CS5, but I subscribed because of the ongoing and more regular updates. It is a little more performant on my Mac system though. I was looking at an upgrade to CS7 (had it appeared this coming year - I upgraded every 2 versions) and was about to upgrade my LR4 to LR5 as I keep that on the current version.

 

For me it makes financial sense based on my upgrade profile, and it spreads the cost out over the months.

[Gervais Montacute]

 

 

I´m a beer drinker. € 12 are 4 beers in my local pub. I´m a smoker. € 12 are 2 packages.

 

What do you think?

 

Colin I think you should give all of that up and live longer. And think of the money you will save to go towards your CS package. 

[Martin P Wilson]

Having had difficulty reinstalling Photoshop CS5.1 onto my new boot disk (WIn7) I have bitten a bullet as well.

 

I have installed GIMP 2.8 and will give up on Photoshop. For the little I do with PS I cannot justify the cost of CC or even Photoshop Elements. It is many months since I did anything serious on PS, I do all my keywording, raw conversion and editing using PhotoMechanic, Capture 1 Pro or Lightroom.

[Imagery by Charly]

Personally I think with the strides other software companies have made since this insane "RENT" Adobe scheme, they're taking a hit and lowered the price from $49/mo. Their thought process hook them cheap then up the price to keep them using what they think they cannot be without. What happens when you can't pay the buck? You're SOL, cuz it's rendered useless. And if you sign up for CC, do you throw away your perpetual program license you have currently?

 

Never really understood renting/leasing anything myself, sure when a teenager, but have owned everything since then. Surely wouldn't start now to think renting is a good plan, as it's pissing money away with nothing to show for it. Adobe can make few huge strides from this point IMHO, so with sales possibly lacking in the near future they went this route. Saddest part is if enough people jump on this bandwagon, it will only get worse. Just hope the other software Devs out there keep working on good product for us photogs, that we can buy and always own, leaving Adobe scrambling in their dust.

 

98% of the time I use only Lr 4.4, the other 2%; a minute part in PS, but mainly in onOne software Perfect Photo Suite. One company that stated they will never "RENT" their programs!

 

And I don't agree with the statement, 'no company could commit to never raising their prices'. As a loyal customer of my cell phone company, I've been given a $50 a month, unlimited everything, no roaming; don't use the internet on my phone much. Have had it for 5 yrs. now, been with them for 12 yrs and don't expect it to change anytime soon. That is what a good company does, takes care of it's good customers, not shaft them. Though I'll admit, there's not many companies today that are like that as greed is too rampant and some think they cannot be without whatever they think they have to have, which plays into the greed....

 

Perhaps I'm wrong in many people's eye, but that's this old woman's 2 cents.

[MDM]

Always the same history. 12,29 €/month or 8,78£/month (that is 10,5€ today), or those US $9.99/month (7,35€/month). Three different prices for the same package. To be honest I do not understand. The same SW from Microsoft, McAffe, etc.

No surprise. It's been the same ever since time began (around 1990 or so). The US dollar prices are invariably much lower than any other currency for Adobe products and many other companies. It's a fact of life.

[Callie]

 

The discounted price doesn't increase after one year. If you take it up on the current offer price then that is the price you are paying. It is guaranteed for the first year, and Adobe have stated that they don't plan to increase it. No company could commit to never raise prices.

 

In the terms and conditions of the offer it states "Renewal

After the first 12 months, we will automatically renew your contract based on the current price of the offering." So I understand, as this offer expires tomorrow and prices will increase after tomorrow, then those taking up the offer will be put onto the higher price after one year.

[David Kilpatrick]

I audited my past years of upgrade costs, and went for the full sub. Whole Suite. It may £22 a month but I get autio, video and my vital magazine production stuff including cloud collaboration and remote working. Last month I was able to keep a job and take my week's holiday, install my second permitted complete CC suite on my laptop (two activations allowed) and have all my fonts and work synchronised - and keep the entire fee while working from our timeshare in Tenerife. It was completed by Apple's iCloud meaning that all the emails with word docs, etc, sent to me once opened and saved were in one place accessible from anywhere. Adobe would need a huge cloud storage sub from me for the same but sensible backup (like all my work saved to an SD card and in my camera during return!) solves that even for 100MB+ of data.

[Ed Endicott]

I bit the bullet and registered as well.  I HATE the concept.  My reasoning is I will need better video editing software (currently using LR and CS6 for video).  I opted for the Photographer's Package to start since it is $9.99 USD to start.  I'm not proud of the fact I did it....but I think it's the best business decision.  I was previously using LR5 and CS6...now currently using LR5 and Photoshop CC.  We'll see how it goes.

[Colin Utz]

All my images here, haven´t seen Photoshop. They are edited in Lightroom 3 and 5, only. I have CS3 on an old computer, but I never used it, since I have Lightroom 5. I´ve installed Gimp, but until now, I didn´t use it one time. Only the reduced price, and an upcoming project made me subscribe. 

[DHill]

I bit the bullet, too, mostly out of curiosity about what's in it. Like Ed, I hate the concept of subscription software; very hard to see how it's in the customer's interest as it reduces user choice.

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

Am also looking at it from a different angle: here we earn in a currency that may as well be called the alamaylicence. The current exchange rate (for me at least) is around $40 to one alamylicence (and I hope it doesn't fall any further ;-)). So CC is costing me around three alamylicences a year. If I feel there's something in CC that allows me to earn three more alamylicences per year than I would with CS5, I'll be breaking even. If not, it's costing me money to have it, and not worthwhile.

 

 

[Paulstw]

I have the deal too however, for users of LR and any kind of photoshop software, it might not offer much update if you're just a go lightly editor. If you use camera raw then maybe for the updated camera an draw file support. I had CS3 before this, and I think the photomerge function is worse in CC. I end up just masking my edits manually now. The new anti shake filter is a gimmick 

[MDM]

 

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

 

I think it may be a lot better to use internet chat than phone if needing to contact Adobe Customer Service. I had to contact them recently when I messed up my login details after I changed my password following the hacking debacle. I got in conversation with somebody (in India I think) very quickly and that was on a weekday evening when the USA would have been fully awake. They sorted the problem straight away as well.

[losdemas]

 

 

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

 

I think it may be a lot better to use internet chat than phone if needing to contact Adobe Customer Service. I had to contact them recently when I messed up my login details after I changed my password following the hacking debacle. I got in conversation with somebody (in India I think) very quickly and that was on a weekday evening when the USA would have been fully awake. They sorted the problem straight away as well.

 

 

I wouldn't count on it.

 

I had to wait a long time for an online chat, which then lasted ages and ultimately resolved nothing.  Again this was to do with password changes following their hacking fiasco: their system wouldn't send e-mails to my address.  Anyhow, I had to follow up with another online chat - which did finally resolve things - but I was waiting online in a queue for ~2 hours!

[DHill]

 

 

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

 

I think it may be a lot better to use internet chat than phone if needing to contact Adobe Customer Service. I had to contact them recently when I messed up my login details after I changed my password following the hacking debacle. I got in conversation with somebody (in India I think) very quickly and that was on a weekday evening when the USA would have been fully awake. They sorted the problem straight away as well.

 

I did actually try that, but I just got an error message saying I wasn't authorised to use the system, or something like that - which was the same problem I had when trying to log on to download cc!

[MDM]

 

 

 

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

 

I think it may be a lot better to use internet chat than phone if needing to contact Adobe Customer Service. I had to contact them recently when I messed up my login details after I changed my password following the hacking debacle. I got in conversation with somebody (in India I think) very quickly and that was on a weekday evening when the USA would have been fully awake. They sorted the problem straight away as well.

 

 

I wouldn't count on it.

 

I had to wait a long time for an online chat, which then lasted ages and ultimately resolved nothing.  Again this was to do with password changes following their hacking fiasco: their system wouldn't send e-mails to my address.  Anyhow, I had to follow up with another online chat - which did finally resolve things - but I was waiting online in a queue for ~2 hours!

 

 

Yeah I had the same problem - it wouldn't send me the password reset email but luckily I got through almost immediately on the chat. 

[MDM]

 

 

 

 

I'll probably bow out before the 30 day limit it up and claim a refund - especially after some terribly customer service when I had to wait on hold for around two hours because of a problem with my Adobe account (after paying, it wouldn't let me log in to download the thing!) And I thought mobile phone companies were bad ;-)

 

 

I think it may be a lot better to use internet chat than phone if needing to contact Adobe Customer Service. I had to contact them recently when I messed up my login details after I changed my password following the hacking debacle. I got in conversation with somebody (in India I think) very quickly and that was on a weekday evening when the USA would have been fully awake. They sorted the problem straight away as well.

 

I did actually try that, but I just got an error message saying I wasn't authorised to use the system, or something like that - which was the same problem I had when trying to log on to download cc!

 

 

Annoying indeed. 

[dov makabaw]

I pondered long and hard and decided not to go over to CC. I mainly use LR5 now and this will continue to be available with upgrades. I have CS3 which is adequate for my needs but may buy a CS6 from a friend. As I understand it after one year the price may increase. If you decide that you do not wish to pay the new price then you are left with nothing. As I see it CC gives Adobe a continuous flow of income to fund their activities and develop their products and release additional features on an ad hoc basis. So far so good. For the user they pay and have the latest version available. They stop paying and they have nothing. If you can live with this commitment all well and good.

 

.dov

[Marvin McAbee]

I signed up also and am downloading Photoshop CC as we speak.  I only had Lightroom 3 and the old CS so thought it would be a good deal for me.  At 10 dollars a month it would take a long time for me to pay for the full versions.  

 

Marvin