Photoshop Elements 3.0 vs 5.0

[lbergman]

After checking out the upgrade price from Elements 3.0 to CS2 (and choking)    , I'm thinking about Elements 5.0 as a stop-gap until CS3 comes out (with hopefully special introductory pricing).

I'm not interested in the album, organizer or any of the other "filler" that is put into Elements these days, but only the editor itself. Basically, I just want to know if the editor in Elements 5.0 any more capable then the one in 3.0? (The editor in 4.0, from what I had gathered at the time, had no real improvements over 3.0.) Particularly, I find myself wanting/needing more 16-bit capability, especially in the ability to create layers in 16-bit and to do shadows/highlights layers (both non-existent in 3.0). Some additional options for the shadows/highlight tools would be good too (such as to prevent haloing).

I checked the Adobe site, but it wasn't really insightful, nor was a handful of review sights I checked out.

Anyone know?  

[Richowens]

No, still no 16 bit layers. That is why I decided to bite the bullet and get CS2.

Rich

[Bobtrips]

After checking out the upgrade price from Elements 3.0 to CS2 (and choking)    , I'm thinking about Elements 5.0 as a stop-gap until CS3 comes out (with hopefully special introductory pricing).

I'm not interested in the album, organizer or any of the other "filler" that is put into Elements these days, but only the editor itself. Basically, I just want to know if the editor in Elements 5.0 any more capable then the one in 3.0? (The editor in 4.0, from what I had gathered at the time, had no real improvements over 3.0.) Particularly, I find myself wanting/needing more 16-bit capability, especially in the ability to create layers in 16-bit and to do shadows/highlights layers (both non-existent in 3.0). Some additional options for the shadows/highlight tools would be good too (such as to prevent haloing).

I checked the Adobe site, but it wasn't really insightful, nor was a handful of review sights I checked out.

Anyone know? 
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The very useful (I found) browser from PSE 2 & 3 went away with PSE 4 and was replaced by the PITA (IMO) Organizer.  

And I seem to remember that with PSE 5 some of the plugins created for earlier versions won't work.  Best check that out rather than rely on my memory.

[lbergman]

Ah, thanks for the heads-up.

I never use the browser, but the plugin incompatibility could be bad since I use a handful of ones from Fred Miranda. If there isn't any real improvement in the editor over 3.0, then I'll either have to bite the (very large) bullet or hope CS3's introduction would save a few $$$.

[jjj]

The browser/organizer that comes with PSE is actually way better than Bridge in many ways. Not perfect, but very good, especially the very useful calendar view and the tagging/finding is not only easy, but fast to use and more importantly, it is heirachical. Bridge's lack of heirachy in keywording, makes it next to useless. And you can make your tags visual, which makes a lot of sense for photographers working with images.
ACDSee also uses the Calendar View concept and can even do time of day. Which is a surprisingly useful way of finding specific pictures during a long days shoot.

I keep hoping Adobe will incorporate some of these very useful ideas into their other products. Though PSE Organizer is a Database and not a file browser.