Photoshop CC & Lightroom 5 for €9.99 per month...12 month contract.

[kaelaria]

Well I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.  Obviously a fresh install...2nd time opening...never EVER happened on CS5 or 6 in all these years.

[BernardLanguillier]

CC working here but I couldn't install LR5 on my 10.6.8 mac pro in 3 attempts, getting a cryptic error message in a great looking ascii text window, it reminded me of my AIX days. No issues on my 10.9 macbook pro. Go figure!

I find the overall experience to be pretty smooth though.

Will need to look into that LR issue since the betterlight raw files are in DNG format.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Schewe]

CC working here but I couldn't install LR5 on my 10.6.8 mac pro in 3 attempts, getting a cryptic error message in a great looking ascii text window, it reminded me of my AIX days.

Because LR 5 requires at least 10.7.x to install (it's listed in the system requirements). Good reason to update to 10.7.5 (at the least).

[BernardLanguillier]

Because LR 5 requires at least 10.7.x to install (it's listed in the system requirements). Good reason to update to 10.7.5 (at the least).

Thanks Jeff,

That makes sense. I was assuming thst such basic pre-reqs were checked by the installer.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Jim-St]

For me its over. Shortly before the offer was there I bought CS6 ...

Me too, and I have some residual irritation that I was made to do an upgrade I hadn't planned on just to stay in the game

However, the current offer terms, (£8.78 p.m. in the UK) are too good to refuse imo, so I think I'm going to buy it.

Just to clarify, though: if at some point in the future I decide to jump off the CC bandwagon, I'll still get to keep the current-at-that-time iteration of PSCC on my computer, and can still re-purchase LR on a perpetual license basis. Is this a correct understanding of the current Adobe position, anyone?

Jim

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Just to clarify, though: if at some point in the future I decide to jump off the CC bandwagon, I'll still get to keep the current-at-that-time iteration of PSCC on my computer, ...

Hi Jim,

No you don't. And that (the lack of a real exit strategy) is one of the big issues, you lose access to all proprietary layer functionality of your work-in-progress files the moment you stop paying. They try to keep you paying with that prospect in mind, and that's why some say that they hold your work to ransom. The only thing you can do is flatten the result and live with that, and start all over if you need to adjust something with one of the alternative photo-editors that happen to be still around at that time.

... and can still re-purchase LR on a perpetual license basis.

For the moment there seem to be no plans to discontinue a perpetual licence option for Lightroom. But Adobe also seems to change their minds a lot lately ...

Cheers,
Bart

[Jim-St]

Hi Jim,

No you don't. And that (the lack of a real exit strategy) is one of the big issues, you lose access to all proprietary layer functionality of your work-in-progress files the moment you stop paying. They try to keep you paying with that prospect in mind, and that's why some say that they hold your work to ransom. The only thing you can do is flatten the result and live with that, and start all over if you need to adjust something with one of the alternative photo-editors that happen to be still around at that time.
Cheers,
Bart

Thanks for the warning, Bart. Like Tom Waits says: "The big print giveth, and the small print taketh away"

Just when I start to feel warm towards Adobe, and tempted by their carrot, they bring out the big stick and hit me over the head with it!

Oh well, at least I have til the end of December to decide how to go with this. In a way for me it's down to whether I'll still need the LR plugin that PS has become in maybe 5 or 10 years time, or whether by then LR will give me all I need. It kinda looks like that could be...

Cheers

Jim

[ianmac]

Enough is enough.

I am a busy working UK photographer and in recent months I have gone through the exhaustive process of trying to find an alternative to Adobe's gun-pressed-against-my-temple subscription policy, as I am sure many pro photographers, unhappy with Adobe's revised policy, have also done. 

Fool me then, for realising it was a depressing, time wasting process - because for my particular requirements (Adjustment Layers, CMYK, Pen Tool, 16 bit etc etc) there is nothing out there that I can switch to.

Nevertheless, I will draw my own blood before I "rent" software.  I honestly do not mind paying $1000.00 for the next Photoshop as a perceptual license because I would know exactly where I was in my life - I had paid for a product, I would use it, I would always be able to use it.  It cost me $1000.00, it is mine, thanks very much, I am happy.

The day I pay Adobe a subscription for their software will be the day I put all my personal and business contacts onto Apple's Cloud...

Ian

[Rick Popham]

For me its over. Shortly before the offer was there I bought CS6 ...

You could always look at it as your exit strategy, since I think it's beginning to seem unlikely that Adobe will come up with anything particularly worthwhile in that regard.

[LesPalenik]

The regular price for this program is $9.99. You are renewed at what that price is when you renew, which is currently $9.99. It may go up or down in the future, but we dont have any plans to change it.

Does Adobe have answers for the following scenarios?

1. A photographer signs up for CC PS+LR to try it out, uses it for a few winter months, then plans to suspend it for the summer, since in the warm weather he prefers to shoot and swim.
2. Another unfortunate soul will slip in February on black ice and breaks his hip, consequently confined to a lengthy stay in bed using iPad and perpetual version of Photoshop Express which he acquired for another ten bucks.  He resents shelling out monthly CC payments for something he can't use.
3. Yet another unlucky soul runs into financial difficulties and finds sherif's lock on his door with the computer and precious version of CC PS+LR taken away.

Will there be a way to suspend their CC plan with an option to renew it in the fall?
 

[john beardsworth]

Do you think it's realistic to cater for such cases? Maybe price by the gigabyte processed? Obviously not, but I wonder if Adobe should just dump the $19.99, blow away the fog, and say it's $9.99 or whatever they think the market will bear (assuming they have any idea!).

[kaelaria]

I would welcome an annual purchase at a slight discount, get rid of the monthly payments.  I have many subscriptions and always like the bulk purchase option - web hosting, registration, anydvd, etc.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I would welcome an annual purchase at a slight discount, get rid of the monthly payments.  I have many subscriptions and always like the bulk purchase option - web hosting, registration, anydvd, etc.

Or a reasonable one time purchase for a non transferable lifetime license.

[Ligament]

I DO NOT like Adobe's new subscription based software rental policy at all. However, $9.99 per month was low enough to tempt me and I subscribed.

[chez]

If anyone thinks this subscription will stay at $9.99 forever...they are naive. There is no way Adobe can guarantee this...and thinking it might be so is just wishful thinking. Costs go up on everything with software costs being so labour intensive...how can anyone guarantee staying at the same price 10 years from now?

[Some Guy]

If anyone thinks this subscription will stay at $9.99 forever...they are naive. There is no way Adobe can guarantee this...and thinking it might be so is just wishful thinking. Costs go up on everything with software costs being so labor intensive...how can anyone guarantee staying at the same price 10 years from now?

I agree.  They'll probably call it "Creative Cloud II" and then change their rates.  Doing away with the perpetual part is one way to force people into paying forever for it.

Not having a perpetual license is a deal killer for me even if it was 50 cents a month for eternity.  Someplace I may sign off the net and then what?  Maybe a dedicated business and editing computer that I don't want connected to the net ever (Employees play a lot you know.).

I had a satellite radio, two of them, and no more since their rates went up when XM Radio got taken over by Sirus XM.  Had "free updates forever" for WinZip software and they dumped that too one day.  Qimage had free updates until they changed the name to Qimage Ultimate and dumped updates for the other version.  Anyone with GM remote access in their cars knows better than that (Free first year, and then wham!).

Not to mention satellite TV where it started at $29 per month and shot up to $100 month.  Cable the same.  Much the same for cellular service too.  Mine started around $19 month and is over $100 now.  Some friends pay far more than that.

I read where someone suggested if no one signed on for the Adobe Cloud stuff, we might have a perpetual licensed version of CS7 by now.  Maybe true, but people who sign on for this Cloud stuff will only perpetuate the ongoing bills with rising prices with no ability to use it once ones stops paying for it.  Only when one threatens to cancel do they lower it - a small bit, which then rises a year later (U-verse comes to mind).

So far this whole $9.95 guarantee seems more of a carrot before the donkey, prior to it stepping over the cliff.

SB

[LesPalenik]

OK, so we have established the price.
Have there been any new and useful features in LR or PS in the last six months? Or even any announcements about planned features for 2014?

[Jack Hogan]

OK, so we have established the price.
Have there been any new and useful features in [...] or PS in the last six months? Or even any announcements about planned features for 2014?

None since CS5, at least AFAIAC

[john beardsworth]

None since CS5, at least AFAIAC

It just depends how hard you push Photoshop and if you're the sort of person that tries to exploit new tools. Some of the content-aware fill features (CS5 and CS6) can save lots of time, the wet media and erodible tip brushes are amazing if you paint or draw with Photoshop, or in the CC version the adjustable rounded corners have caught my eye. Other things I'd like in CC are synchronising setup across computers and being able to install on a Mac and a PC. So yes, there are goodies if you're the kind of person who pushes the program. The better question is whether that will continue to be the case.

[kaelaria]

Can't say I see anything in CS7, oh I mean CC....but CS5 to CS6 had some great stuff.  One HUGE time saver was the Close All option alone!  Lots of little things like that plus the much better interface.   All in all that move saved me huge chunks of time.