Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade [Mac] [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I haven't had more than a fleeting look at Photoshop CS4 at this point. From my long experience with Photoshop, I can say that it has met every expectation I've had. If allowed to give a rating each for product and support, I would give the product four stars, and support two stars at best.

I'm one of those people that switched from Windows to a Mac early last year. When I called Adobe and inquired about moving my software license to Mac, I was told at the time that although they would not transfer the license, I could do this at any upgrade. I was disappointed, but it seemed a reasonable policy. When I purchased my Photoshop CS4 upgrade and attempted to install it, I was surprised that it wouldn't accept the Windows based Photoshop CS2 serial number. I contacted Adobe customer support and discussed the problem, I was told that Adobe would exchange the old Windows serial number for a Mac serial number if I gave them the original Photoshop full release serial number (not a serial number from an upgrade). The trouble was that my original purchase of Photoshop was around version 3 (CS4 is version 11), and the earliest materials I could find started at version 5.5. The original software was pitched years ago, as Adobe's policy is to allow upgrades within the same operating system with any previous serial number, full or upgrade.

Things went downhill from there; I was transferred between, customer service, sales, and technical support multiple times. Around the fifth time I was transferred to customer service, I asked to talk to a supervisor who although understanding, told me that there was nothing I could do but return the software to Amazon and get a refund (the software package had been opened, so I knew Amazon wouldn't accept it).

In desperation, I called the Adobe corporate office and talked to their operator about the experience I had. She referred me to their customer service escalation team. When she transferred me, I was sent right back to the customer service group I had been dealing with all day. I later discovered that my call was transferred about the time the escalation team quit for the day and that my call had rolled to the regular customer service group.

When I finally did talk to someone from the escalation team, they were very helpful. The CS rep took my information and forwarded it to another group for approval. Two days later, I received a new serial number which when entered, does not require a serial number from a previous Mac release. Adobe did finally provide an acceptable resolution to the problem. My issue with them is that a badly thought out policy prevented a smooth upgrade by a long time customer. Additionally, Adobe's customer service appears to be poorly trained as to how to resolve cross platform licensing issues, and what escalation procedures are available to Adobe's customers.

Since I already owned CS3 I got this for the upgrade price, otherwise I would not have purchased. The most notable improvement is in performance when it is loading multiple large RAW files. It is definitely faster. I like the tabbed interface a little better as well. This is not, by any means, a necessary upgrade, but for me the performance boost alone made this well worth while.

Works fine.

But a lot of money for what one gets.

many old features that are still there were simply automated a way that is not so much better and needs a big learning curve. And that is called a big advance.

I just use it like my previous version.

One good thing: choose actual pixels in the pull down menu and it auto-resizes the diolog box to fit. But that should have been there to begin with.

I'm a photographer who uses Photoshop all the time. I wish I listened to others who said not to upgrade. CS4 provides very few new features useful to me and some navigational changes that took time to get used to.

Photoshop is great. CS4 upgrade is not.

Had to return this because Adobe will NOT allow their loyal customers to upgrade only part of a suite. I have the Full Creative Suite but didn't find this new version compelling enough to spend the $600.00 for the whole upgrade. I though it would be nice to at least be current with Photoshop and get the rest of the suite when the 64 bit version is finally released... WRONG... it's the whole suite or nothing!

I am actively pursuing alternatives to Photoshop, at which time I will no longer be one of their customers. Aperture with plug ins is getting pretty close for most of the work I do... so it's goodbye Adobe! I strongly suggest that anyone who can make the change do it! They won't change as long as they perceive their monopoly is unbreakable...

Good customer service shouldn't be so hard to find... We need to reward those who give good service and abandon those who don't.

Caution: if you have Adobe Suite, you cannot upgrade the individual programs. Trying to get information from customer service is impossible. Getting a refund is even harder. Four weeks later, the check is still "in the mail".

If you are going from CS 2 to CS 4 as I did, this upgrade is worth it. I did have some printing issues to a high end Canon CLC copier/printer, that required a Canon tech support guy writing a special driver for it. Other than that, there are some new fun features. I do allot of design work with multiple colorways and it is fun to have Kuler built right inside the palettes. The new features are great for photographers. Be aware that some of the new features that work with Open GL are not in this version- those are only in the extended version (Adobe does not make that clear on their web site explaining the different versions of Photoshop- which is confusing!).
The interface is different and does take a little getting use to. But as before, you can have multiple versions of Photoshop installed at the same time so that you can get your work done. [...] has some great on line video classes to help you with the transition. You get a month membership for free when you register this product with Adobe.

Well I have not learned everything that it has to offer but I was forced to upgrade (I don't usually do that until I absolutely have to) but the option to open up a jpg in Raw made it worth the price of admission.
ALSO a cool thing is that once you have opened that jpg in CS4, if you then open it in CS3 it will open in RAW. Very cool! No complaints.

Total waste of Money. I couldn't get it to upgrade on old Photoshop (Creative Suite CS). Spent lots of time trying. The information on the Amazon very misleading. Adobe's too.

As with previous versions, CS4 is a fantastic piece of software altho I think it's quite expensive (read comments below).




Since I've read other comments about it here on Amazon, I want to point out my experience with Adobe's customer service has been fantastic.

I called them to ask for a cross-platfrom license transfer (from PC to Mac), and my "chain of upgrades" was rather complicated as well:
- Used copy of Retail Photoshop 6.0 (I signed & faxed the ownership transfer form when I purchased it years ago)
- CS upgrade (with a signed transfer form as well)
- CS3 upgrade
- CS4

The Adobe representative asked me for all my serials, instructed me to upload a form of proof-of-destruction for the above mentionned software, and charged me 19.99$ fees for Canada shipping.

3 weeks later I received a brand new retail version box of CS4 MAC.


Lastly, I want to point out that as an amateur photographer, I realize I now use Photoshop CS4 much less than I did so with CS3 because of how well Adobe Lightroom has matured from version 1 to version 2.

Photoshop CS used to be part of my workflow for all photographs. Now I find myself barely using it now and then, because I can mostly do everything I want in Lightroom 2.


That brings me to the near 700$ price point: I'm not sure it's justified for nearly anybody that won't make a professional living out of photos or images that need to be worked on with CS4. There's still a couple of CS only plugins that I need and justify the use of CS4, but if Adobe Lightroom had a true & full plug-in support (and not a export-to-plugin function), I'm not really sure I'd keep purchasing the new versions of Photoshop CS.