Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/12/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Larry. The only program that I have used in your list is Photoshop Elements, and it is really a dumbed down version of Photoshop. No contest. You would have to buy a decent RAW converter if you dont buy Photoshop - both Nikon & Canon's packaged versions are pretty basic. The cost adds up on software, it really does. Especially if you want professional routines sold by the ilk of Nik or Photokit. This is not something unique to photo processing, it is part of the total cost of owning a computer - the hardware costs are pretty insignificant over the life of the machine, compared to what we would spend on software over the same period. In fact the only parameter which is of importance when buying hardware is after sales service, because the productivity losses arising from computer downtime is horrendous. Cheers Jayanand On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 9:27 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin@optonline.net>wrote: > > On Dec 14, 2008, at 12:50 AM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote: > > Nathan, >> You left out a very big and recurring expense - software. Adobe's programs >> dont come cheap - they are a monopoly and charge as such. I just found out >> that to upgrade from the CS3 suite to the CS4 suite is only US$770 - the >> cost of a very good digital SLR. >> Cheers >> Jayanand >> > > > We cheapies have long known that there are many low cost digital > manipulation programs which will perform most of the functions of > Photoshop. > Indeed Adobe Elements will do the bulk of what Photoshop does except > pre-press work for a retail cost of less than $100. Mac users can use the > latest implementation of GraphicConverter, a truly versatile program, for > $35. The trial version is free. In fact, if you bought a Mac laptop a > couple > of years ago, a fully licensed version was included in the software > package. > For casual image correction work, iPhoto is adequate. I have an aged copy > of > Photoshop 6 which does everything I need except run on my new iMac. Linux > users can use GIMP for free. GIMP does just about everything that Photoshop > does. I'm sure that dark side computers (PCs) have even more low cost > programs available. The list goes on and on. In short, unless you are > heavily involved in publishing, there is no need to use the expensive > spread. > > Larry Z > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >