No disagreement. What happened at the business level was that Adobe took an amazing leap to transition to a subscription model in which you pay as long as you use CC applications. Previously, you coughed up a chunk of money up front with no further obligations. The CC model leads to predictable revenue and more of it. I've not checked lately but it looks like Adobe's transition is becoming successful at the business level, following a down period during the riskiest phase of the transition.

In the new subscription model, typical of cloud arrangements, you pay for services, like the services you get from the apps in CC. In cloud setups, the service sometimes is hosted remotely by the vendor and sometimes you -- the customer -- host it remotely or, like CC, locally.

If operating conditions were ideal, and they are not, you should want the vendor to host applications for you so you don't have to install and update them and worry about evolving your equipment for running it flawlessly. At least, Adobe updates CC so that the maintenance issue recedes. As a cloud architect, I don't think it is technically practical to host LR and PS remotely, for several reasons.

Wrapping up, Adobe's subscription model and Adobe's maintenance model are often used in the cloud. The hosting is done in your own private, local cloud, that is, your local computer setup. And so is your storage, until you get around to using the huge CC remote cloud storage -- https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/file-storage-quota.html. I am comfortable with Adobe calling what they do a cloud.

As for updates, I have seen a few inconsistencies pop up as CC error messages, which I have ignored, without bad results. I will let others do the work to tell Adobe about it all and I expect the company to have essentially zero such events rather soon.

Here is the Adobe answer to the question and some local color from me.

Well, I'm pretty new to photography and the digital darkroom (PP) so until a week ago I had been struggling with this question, with many folders scrambled on my OS-X and Win 7 computers. Last week I saw this video, in which Adobe evangelist Terry White explains the (official?) Adobe view of the posted question, which I see as non-commital: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8XLYG8A0s

I stopped using Bridge in favor of LR; soooo much easier! I have found that Bridge is not specific to photos, unlike LR. Bridge adeptly coordinates PS, Illustrator, and other CC applications.

To use PS from LR (CC, Win 7) right click on the photo > Edit In > Edit In Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 ... which gets you to PS for layers and so forth. Save your PS work in PSD format so that LR can recognize the new picture that gets added to the LR catalog and so you can retain any layers in case you return to PS with the PSD image.

Here is some detail that may interest only new flitter-ers between LR and P. PS brought up the wrong photo for me when I chose Original after Edit In. You don't want to edit the Original in PS because any LR edits will be discarded. I changed my choice to Smart Object (See below.), which works and is more often suitable. Probably the preferred sequence from LR is Edit In > Open as Smart Object in Photoshop...

Be aware there is a Mini Bridge available from within PS. This sounds delightful, but it may not be present, so you may have to deal with your configuration. I think this was the point at which I exhaled and redefined my immature PP workflow to be headquartered in LR, LOL. Got everything unscrambled and into LR, using Adobe Help.

I just recently noticed that ACR is in LR. It may be that Camera Raw is updated earlier in LR than in PS -- I am seeing some version messages which I ignore.

Here are some things I found out last week about Wacom and iPad.

The least-expensive Wacoms are enough to do Photoshop Selection, according to my contact at a luxury web site. Yet, I am going with the Intuos Pro as it: (1) is wireless -- easier to reclaim desk space when not in use; (2) has definable function keys, for speed and recovery, like promiscuous saves; and (3) supports gestures, for example to rotate the photo while working, for accuracy and ergonomics in the workflow.

I spoke to Sales after writing to Support; Support's input is below, FYI. Sales said I'd want the medium, even though the large might better match the scale of my monitor. I am wondering if traversing less real estate on the Wacom tablet might not be faster than using a larger tablet. Likewise, choices that allow for working on a monitor directly may require more extensive movement. After all, PS allows changing the image size. The sales guy said get the newer 651, not the older 650.

To see where things may be going, tablet-wise see HP's product photo: http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/mdp/desktops/sprout-by-hp-204036--1#!&TabName=vao and then click on Details to take a creativity tour. In the same vein, there are some who have tossed their mouse to use a Wacom tablet's stylus in its place -- for everything.

Wacom support said this about Wacom tablets and iPad:
Thank you for contacting Wacom Customer Support. To answer your questions:
Do I need to buy a separate Art Pen? No because the Grip Pen should be sufficient. Actually, it would highly depend on how you work.
For Photoshop, is there supporting equipment or software I should buy? No as you are already using Photoshop. You just need to download the driver for your tablet. Here is a direct link: http://cdn.wacom.com/u/drivers/IBMPC/pro/WacomTablet_6.3.11-4a.exe
I want a pen for my wife to use on iPads, sketching clothing and other designs. Should I buy Creative Stylus 2 for her? Yes.
Could she try the Intuos Pro pen on her iPad? No.
Which app(s) in Creative Cloud best serve her use? I would suggest Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. For more information and videos on how to pair the Intuos Creative Stylus 2 with leading apps, visit: http://community.wacom.com/en/inspiration/blog/2014/october/get-started-with-the-intuos-creative-stylus-2-apps,-pairing-and-more/

Best answer ever!
Since 1969, I have had to pause and think every time whether a low-pass filter wipes out the low stuff that tries to pass or allows the low stuff to pass through unfiltered while wiping out the high stuff. Now I'll remember.

Useful feedback for all of us, I expect.

I got a message from Photoshop this week on my just-for-photos 2011 Mac laptop that some newer functions having to do with 3D (and something else I don't recall) won't work right with less than 512M of vRAM, so even if your Lightroom does not care today -- I don't know -- be sure your new computer can handle that specification. Here is why: in the future, 3D info will probably be used more widely to inform and algoritmically automate edits of traditional 2D images -- new intelligence.

You ask, PC or Mac? I use Photoshop+Bridge and Lightroom on each, as the CC license allows. A PC in the home office and a Mac laptop in the home studio.

This may interest you. Apple is aligning their photography apps across iPads, iPhones, and Mac computers and so is about to release Photos for OS-X which Apple also calls Photos for Mac; see http://www.apple.com/osx/photos-preview/. Deprecation is in the air for Aperture and maybe (desktop) iPhotos.

Whatever else Apple's move may offer Adobe customers, and you the poster with your Lightroom and copying to CDs, Photos for OS-X is another off-site backup destination and likely with mature privacy.
There is a nice image at this URL of an iPad, an iPhone, and a Macbook Air (rule of thirds, anybody??) showing the same photo collection (JPEGs?) on each device, synchronized as drawn from the cloud.

On February 15, a UHH contributor asked about tethering D3100s to iPad tablets. I commented that it is possible and said I would try to add some value in a later comment, so here you go. While my hands-on experience is with tethering my Nikon D3100 to a computer, for transmitting RAW files, my remarks here likely apply to many cameras from many manufacturers. Likewise, these remarks may apply to many mobile devices, that is, tablets and smart phones. The D3100 is something of a worst case as the electronics are old and Nikon's firmware-level support for earlier tethering approaches has been less than I might have wished, if not zero. I believe Nikon has actively enabled the Eye-Fi approach discussed here. This is a little long, but hopefully useful and with explanation of terms.

As for tethering an iPad to a D3100, the topic of the February 15 question, I just now got working a product, Eye-Fi (http://eye-fi.com), on an Apple MacBook Pro laptop, which has larger storage and larger displays than mobile devices like iPads. The Eye-Fi vendor's site says that iPads are supported, among other mobile devices and a large number of cameras.

Now, my next Apple OS-X task is to export the laptop display to one or two large external, screens, to see lots of apps and images at once, for example, to edit in Adobe Camera Raw, etc., etc. For these three reasons -- storage, image size-screen quality, and multi-tasking -- I have started with a computer and have not tried my iPad and iPhone with Eye-Fi.

I inadvertently turned off the camera during a transmission to my computer and then turned it on again. The hoped-for transmission finished completely, consistently, and correctly. I'd never have expected this; somebody needs to get a promotion at Eye-Fi.

How does Eye-Fi work with a D3100 conversing with a computer? First, with Eye-Fi, I can pick up my transferred D3100's NEF files wirelessly in Adobe Bridge, in my Mac folder hierarchy ...Pictures > Eye-Fi > <transmission or creation date>, as I requested in the Eye-Fi setup. Adobe Bridge is an Adobe adjunctive app to Adobe Photoshop and other Adobe applications, reminiscent of the Adobe Lightroom Library.

Second, there is a YouTube video with a D800(E?) transmitting a NEF (Nikon Electronic Format, that is, RAW) file to a computer. This clip documents a moderately satisfactory speed, given that these files are larger than their D3100 counterparts. While I have not yet tried to speed up my own Eye-Fi transfers, I am finding Eye-Fi pretty slow for my D3100 NEF files. I am not satisfied on this point, but after all, my NEF files are 10MB.

Third, A likely workaround to halve transmission time, could be to transmit only JPEG Basic versions of my images using Eye-Fi while saving (1) a NEF file and (2) a smaller JPEG Basic file with each D3100 shutter click, as the D3100 can do. Of these two file types, I would transmit only the smaller to meet my main goals: to check focus, color, and composition – in case I need to re-shoot before tearing down my setup and moving on to the shot. At my leisure, I would edit the larger NEF keepers, later in my workflow. This way, the advantages of editing information-complete NEFs in Adobe's Camera Raw -- a Photoshop plug-in -- are open to me because the detail-rich NEFs (and the information-reduced JPEGs) will be on the SD card when I am ready for post processing a batch of shots. Stated differently, this compromise of transmitting JPEGs would presumably allow for much faster-paced, timelier reviews of what has just been shot, since the inferior-but functional JPEG files can transmit faster, being smaller.

Once again, I have only just started – two days ago -- with Eye-Fi's wireless tethering. I may learn enough about speed in due course to justify another comment later, if there is interest. I am confident the vendor, Eye-Fi, could detail the D3100’s choke points and suggest improvements, as normally software vendors can access their own log files, hopefully with event time stamps.

I failed to get to the above site on the first try because of the typo in the unsuffixed URL above. Try this: http://www.controlmynikon.com/

Looks like an interesting site, especially as the D3100 does not tether to Lightroom. Some seem to think that Nikon declines to support tethering for the D3100; I'm fine with that business/technical decision.

In any case, Nikon enables Eye-Fi tethering to many DSLRs and Eye-Fi supports D3100 tethering to iPads. This is a little cryptic here, but kindly see my hands-on account of Eye-Fi tethering to a computer, for use with Adobe products, in a comment to come.

Valuable input, wingclui44, because it fits all my data, for example:

-The two -N lenses I mentioned have nine elements, per your info
-My Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 Prime has seven elements, per your info
-My Nikkor-Q Auto 135mm f/3.5 has four elements, per your info

For related info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_F-mount

Thank you.

Hi. I'm a first-time commenter and a learning, not-yet photographer.

On Feb 7, 2015, there was discussion of N for Nikon's zoom lenses of today which have the Nikkor Integrated Coating. Each of the responders seem to be correct, but perhaps it is worth extending the discussion because N has had at least various meanings.

I own a prime -N lens from about 1967-1977, the NIKKOR-N Auto 24mm f/2.8. Pictures: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/6070nikkor/wides/24mm.htm

This lens introduced a historically significant mechanical close-range focus-correction system -- floating adjustment. See, http://nikkor.com/story/0014/.

The current N symbol, as discussed in earlier posts here, now indicates an anti-internal-reflections coating. The N is found on the body of the lens, in gold. The -N of my comment is found on the front of the lens, appended to the name, NIKKOR.

The -N suffix on my lens appeared before the first multi-coated lens, the Ai Nikkor 35mm f/1.4S, in 1971. The NIKKOR-N Auto lens was updated with a multi-layer coating in 1972. The multi-layer coating of these post-1972 lenses targets anti-ghosting and anti-flare. This coating is different from the later Super Integrated Coating (SIC) and is different from today's Nano Crystal Coating, which originated in semiconductor manufacturing, the sequentially third meaning of N.

The sequentially second use (2005) of the N designation was for AI lenses: http://bythom.com/lensacronyms.htm

Nikon has used N to refer to new types of glass: http://nikkor.com/story/nwords-e.html#retrofoc but I doubt that this glossary entry is the same N as the -N of my lens.

Still another N is suffixed to f/2.8, as in http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/glossary.htm, meaning, "new," as in certain improvements to the EL-NIKKOR 50mm f/2.8N in 1979. See http://nikon.com/about/feelnikon/recollections/r15_e/index.htm

For more on coatings, see SIC and N in this glossary: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/glossary.htm. See also http://nikkor.com/history/03.html.

So what does the -N on my lens stand for? At first, I thought it might refer to the presence of a negative meniscus lens element. However, it seems likely that -N refers to the close-focus mechanical innovation that makes this lens significant as noted above. Evidence for this view is the use of -N in the 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor-N Auto Wideangle Lens, which appears to include the same near-focus mechanics. Since I have not seen any remarks to this effect, it would be nice to hear the views of others.