Bridge CS4 is perfect!

[Raw shooter]

Color me impressed - stunning performance and lots of new features.
Vista 64 bit OS, Adobe CS4 64 bit installed.
Did I mention that is't fast.  No very fast!
I was a user that frankly thought Bridge CS3 was unusable.  Bridge CS4 is the promise I had hoped for - and it delivers.

ACR5, the Adjustment brush is quite a paradigm shift from CS3.  Can do it all in RAW now.  Also quite easy to use (simple to figure out all the options)

CS4 is going to be big.  I think it's the single largest upgrade from Adobe ever.
I am a very happy camper!  

[teddillard]

Color me impressed - stunning performance and lots of new features.
Vista 64 bit OS, Adobe CS4 64 bit installed.
Did I mention that is't fast.  No very fast!
I was a user that frankly thought Bridge CS3 was unusable.  Bridge CS4 is the promise I had hoped for - and it delivers.

ACR5, the Adjustment brush is quite a paradigm shift from CS3.  Can do it all in RAW now.  Also quite easy to use (simple to figure out all the options)

CS4 is going to be big.  I think it's the single largest upgrade from Adobe ever.
I am a very happy camper!  

yeah baby!  Smart Collections in Bridge too!

[Schewe]

yeah baby!  Smart Collections in Bridge too!

Actually, that it simply a refinement from CS3's Saved Searches which also could behave as a Smart Collection. The bigger news is that Bridge CS4 now actually has simple, arbitrary Collections that can be easily made from images across multiple volumes. So, you can more easily assemble collections for a variety of uses including processing from a Collection. (in the menu for Photoshop under Bridge Tools).

[Czornyj]

Not only Bridge - the whole PS CS4 is FLYING! Even under my XP, on C2D+4GB! In some miraculous way 0,5GB scans from Mamiya 7 started to behave like small jpegs from a compact camera... I absolutely love it - it's speed and responsiveness seem to be astonishing!

[teddillard]

simply a refinement

...well I'm a simple guy.  



nice to have it easily accessible, and it's a nice nod to the Lightroom (and Aperture, for that matter) Smart Collections/Smart Projects.  For FREE, too, my favorite four letter word.

[teddillard]

Actually, that it simply a refinement from CS3's Saved Searches which also could behave as a Smart Collection. The bigger news is that Bridge CS4 now actually has simple, arbitrary Collections that can be easily made from images across multiple volumes. So, you can more easily assemble collections for a variety of uses including processing from a Collection. (in the menu for Photoshop under Bridge Tools).

yup, yup.  Now that I've had a chance to look at this, you're totally right (but you knew that, heh...)

For those looking for how to do this, I did a little writeup.
http://www.teddillard.com/2008/10/bridge-s...arches-cs3.html

If you save a search as a Favorite, well, waddaya know, it looks just like a Smart Collection.  

Thanks again Jeff!

[jdemott]

So far, I am finding PS CS4 to be a great experience.  There seems to have been a lot of attention devoted to making everything work better.  The whole package, and particularly Bridge, just seems much more stable and faster.  When Lightroom was first released, I was concerned that Adobe would be tempted let Bridge and ACR languish in order to promote sales of LR as a separate product, but clearly that has not happened.  Kudos to Adobe for continuing to improve Bridge.

[Ben Rubinstein]

Almost perfect. The review mode, although it's a very good idea, needs tweaking. You can't click to add stars, doesn't work for some reason though you can use the keyboard to do it. Second problem and a feature killer for me is that it always starts at the beginning of the folder not from a highlighted thumbnail. A killer when you're sorting lots of photos in more than one session. You can do it by making a selection and working from it but again it's a time waster.

I posted a thread in the ACR forum with timings from Bridge CS4 compared to CS2, it's faster at rendering full previews and showing built in jpgs from RAWs. If it's faster than CS2 then it's certainly faster than CS3!

As for the local brushes. What can I say? I've been waiting for this since the first ACR. I would say that ACR is pretty much complete now, I have no more feature requests! As a wedding photographer this has been heaven sent.

[wlong]

Color me impressed - stunning performance and lots of new features.
Vista 64 bit OS, Adobe CS4 64 bit installed.
Did I mention that is't fast.  No very fast!
I was a user that frankly thought Bridge CS3 was unusable.  Bridge CS4 is the promise I had hoped for - and it delivers.

ACR5, the Adjustment brush is quite a paradigm shift from CS3.  Can do it all in RAW now.  Also quite easy to use (simple to figure out all the options)

CS4 is going to be big.  I think it's the single largest upgrade from Adobe ever.
I am a very happy camper!  

It is good.  It is fast.



Just dont ask Adobe for any help    They refused all support when I mentioned Vista 64 bit - instead pointing out what Adobe will offer support for - and it aint 64 bit!!

Anyone got a reason why ?  Or has this been one of those questions asked soooooo many times ?

[jjj]

Almost perfect. The review mode, although it's a very good idea, needs tweaking. You can't click to add stars, doesn't work for some reason though you can use the keyboard to do it.

How is that a problem? Using the keyboard is often the easiest way to do most mousey things. Keyboard shortcuts are your friend,you can label too as well as rotate images if need be. Must easier than using clumsy mouse. Though annoyingly, you cannot use purple label via keyboard!!


 

Second problem and a feature killer for me is that it always starts at the beginning of the folder not from a highlighted thumbnail. A killer when you're sorting lots of photos in more than one session. You can do it by making a selection and working from it but again it's a time waster.

Always starts from the single thumbnail I select. on both Mac + PC versions.