Adios Adobe

(non-photo geeks may want to skip over this post)

Adobe has released their Camera Raw 4.6 plug-in for Macs and Windows versions of Photoshop CS3. This plug-in allows CS3 (aka Photoshop v10) to open the latest RAW files from new digital cameras. The problem is that Adobe says 4.6 is the last update to Camera Raw for CS3. So once again Adobe screws their users to who buy new cameras by forcing them to upgrade to CS4 if they buy a new camera that isn’t included in Camera Raw 4.6 plug-in.

I’m tired of this forced upgrading, it’s like a virus infection. Sure, Adobe will say you can convert RAW files to their own DNG format which can then be opened with older versions of Photoshop but DNG files are pretty big and take time to process.

I for one will make CS3 my last Photoshop upgrade (unless I trip over a pile of money in the woods or something similar). I own Apple’s Aperture and they have updated their Raw plug-ins for new cameras at no extra cost. There’s a learning curve to Aperture but I hate to pour hundreds of dollars into Adobe products and be left hanging if I buy a new camera.

Sure, I’ll still use Photoshop but I think the transition away from it for my needs will serve me better in the long run and save me money too.