Yep, makes sense to me too! I have only had my SX50 a couple of days, but I spent a very pleasant couple of hours in a local park yesterday, taking shots my old P&S couldn't have *dreamed* of... That lens can really reach out and 'touch someone'!

Yeah, an option to buy would be good. I asked Adobe about the price, and whether it would go up after the (obligatory) year of subscription. He told me that most of the other 'introductory offers' were just for a year, and would then be more expensive. They are planning to keep the 'photographers special' at $10 indefinitely.

There is no way on Earth that I could ever afford to buy a current version of PS - my PC cost less than that! I figure that, at $10 per month, that would take at least something like 5 years to reach the price of the purchase, and who knows how many times the prices will have risen in that time.

So far, I have been spending most of my time working on old negatives and scans. I have been using PS (CS2) a lot, just getting rid of spots and scratches. Now that my focus will be moving a bit more to my current digital stuff, I guess there is a chance that I won't use PS too much. Many people have posted that LR serves 90% of their editing needs. If I find that is my position too, then I guess I would probably buy LR and try PSE for the pixel-level stuff. I have PSE10 on here, but have not really used it. That would be the point where I would consider the 'subscription' route to be unnecessary. If they had a way to offset your previous rental costs against the cost of buying either program, that would be useful.

That looks exceedingly complex to me... I think I want to learn how to use the camera 'as is' before trying to add extras. Besides, I don't like the idea of voiding the warranty on a complex electronic gadget that's only a few days old!

Thanks for the info, though. Maybe down the road a ways, I will come back to it.

Yes it does. I am just unsure exactly what my workflow is going to be, right now. To go all Adobe or not, that is the question? Whether 'tis nobler...

Thanks. Can't wait till I can get a decent tripod, and take some at night...

I hope to have LR soon. I am waiting for the copy of PS CS3 that I bought on ebay, so I can qualify for the 'photographers special' at adobe.

I saw a mention of CHDK in another post somewhere, but I don't understand just what it is...

Yeah, the squirrel blew me away! That is exactly what I was hoping for from this camera... If I showed a fully zoomed-out shot of it, you couldn't see him! There were lots of birds, but by the time I saw them, they were flying off. I did manage to catch that one, but he was so far off I wasn't sure I had him! I tried a few BIF, but I couldn't keep them in the frame long enough. I had a couple of blank blue sky photos... Need to practice that!

I took about 200 shots, and I only turned on self-timer twice!

I noticed the battery indicator went down 1 bar about 180 shots, but I had a spare in my pocket and carried on. It started to flash at shot 247 - I know because I changed it and took a photo of the battery so I would remember. So, that's close to 250 shots, using raw+fine if that makes a difference, and mostly using viewfinder not screen. That is pretty reasonable, I think.

Not sure if this is 'done', replying to your own posts, but...

I was on with adobe support this afternoon on another matter, and I asked about using an ebay purchase to qualify for CC (my CS3 didn't arrive this morning, unfortunately). He said no problem. Pretty much as long as you have a valid serial number, they should take it. I'll still feel happier once I have actually *done* it, but it looks like it should work.

Here are a few from my second outing with the camera. These are straight out-of-the-camera jpegs, with no processing other than resizing. I might play around with the moon one a bit. I just happened to notice it as I was driving out the park, so I couldn't resist trying it. The sky was light - this was about 1 PM - so there is little contrast, but I guess it shows what the lens is capable of. This was at 1200 - ie. no digital zoom.

I understand that. Mostly! My point, though, is that the jpegs coming out of my camera are mainly pretty good anyway. Unless I am wanting to boost something specific, I don't feel the need to mess with them.

I am also at a bit of a turning point. So far, I have mainly been working on scans from negatives, taken in the dim and distant past. Lots of retouching, removing scratches, dust marks, all that good stuff. Until I can afford to have another batch scanned, I am now working with digital stuff, finally! I was out this morning taking my new SX50 for a walk in the woods, and I have about 200 new photos to play with. Scanning through, I can't see any that need retouching, or even cropping. There are a couple that I want to work on, plus several that I shot with an eye to converting to B&W. It just feels so GOOD not to have to go through each and every photo, removing scratches and dust!

Thanks for your comments.

Well, I think they are spectacular! I hope you don't mind, but I 'borrowed' a few for my wallpaper collection...

Thanks.

Oh, I didn't realise that. If I manage to get the subscription to CC, I will probably use the DNG, since all my stuff will be adobe anyway.

I am trying to figure out how to handle raw in terms of my file system. For years, I only had jpg capability, but I always kept the camera-original untouched and pristine, in a 'raw' folder. I would copy the whole bunch somewhere else to work on. Now, I am shooting raw+fine, I don't think there is any reason to store the 'original' jpeg, is there? If I have the raw file stored, I can always get back a copy of the original jpeg from that. Unless I am misunderstanding something along the way! Other than my few attempts at hdr, I really haven't seen any big difference between the raw and the camera jpeg.

I understand (I think...) about the added editing capability the raw gives, but a lot of the time I am happy with the default.

Yeah, sorry... I understood what you meant, but not until I was away from my PC, and taking my camera for a walk! I will be doing that any moment now...

Thanks.

Yeah, the full bundle is out of my price range, but there are a couple there that I would be interested in. They just don't say if they are plug-ins or stand-alone. I already have a bunch of programs to run, and don't really want to add to that complexity, if that makes sense.

Is there a way on here to block messages from certain posters? I have had my fill of the garbage some people are posting...

If I don't agree with a poster, or think it is a silly question, I just don't bother to respond. Why is it some people just *have* to post negative comments???