On 2013-06-03 16:19:27 -0700, said:

I have been a Photoshop user since the very first release of the
software for the PC way back in what, 1990? 1994?? Both personal and
at all of the screenprinting companies I managed over the years and
right up to my own personal photography work. I looked at GIMP once,
Same with COREL..... and a few other wannabe's.

Through all the years I've been a loyal Adobe customer and never
really considered anything else as the Photoshop products always did
well for me.

Over the weekend I purchased a Nikon D3200 camera. This camera uses
NEF-Compressed RAW format. I use Photoshop CS3 mostly out of laziness
in updating. Also though there is the cost with seeming annual
upgrades. CS3 did everything I need it to do so if it ain't broken
don't fix it.

My research and updating of CS3 let to naught as those of you in the
"know" will nod your heads to. So I figured I would call Adobe and
learn what the cost would be to upgrade.

Imagine my surprise when I learned of Adobe's current Subscription
demands to have the privilege of using their products.

We feel your pain. :-(
This has been discussed in the photo NGs at some length, and many of us
here have discussed, and weighed the pro & cons of the Adobe "Creative
Cloud" (CC). Many of us have decided that CS6 is the end of the Adobe
upgrade treadmill. Few of us here are pro-photographers, or graphic
artists/designers and we have chosen to stick with CS5 or CS6 and go no
further.

Personally, over the years I have paid for PS7, PS-CS, then up graded
to CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, & finally CS6. I use Lightroom 4 (LR4)+CS6 in my
workflow.

The Adobe upgrade path changed several years ago and for you an upgrade
from CS3 to CS5 dead-ended some time ago. You are correct the only
purchasable upgrade you could make today is CS5 to CS6. So, your
purchase options are to pay $699 to Adobe for the last of their
inventory, or $650 via Amazon for the last of their inventory. None of
those are appealing.

Now that you have a new camera which is not supported by ACR in your
CS3, you have several options:
1: Search out other available software options.

2: Stick with CS3 and add Lightroom 4 , currently available for $97.99
from Amazon. This will give you all you need for cataloging and
processing of current RAW files, and you will still be able to use CS3.
(this is the solution I recommend)
There are some advantages to this as you would be using the 2012 RAW
process engine, which is a vast improvement over the 2003 version in
CS3.

3: Download the current version of the free DNR convertor from Adobe,
and continue with CS3.

....or 4: Take a deep breath and consider the actual annual cost of the
subscription model for single module rental of Photoshop compared to
$699 purchase or $199 upgrade. The initial offering of $10/month for a
single module for the first year, $120/year vs $199 for an upgrade, or
$120/year vs $699 for a purchase of CS6. After the initial offering the
single module rental goes to $20/month or $240/year and a permanent
upgrade path. You still get to have two installations desktop/laptop.
If I was not a retired old fart, I might well consider the CC
subscription route.

Le Snip

Farewell Adobe...... It's been nice but I'm done with y'all!


--
Regards,

Savageduck