Photoshop CS5

[Chris V]

This looking pretty cool! Saving my pennies now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfkjHnsAsvg

[BillOz]

That is very impressive, and just plain cool, the stuff that can be done.

Just for reference, if you have a child who is a student, you can order "them" a copy from an educational software website for about 10-20% of the full retail cost.  Sometimes these versions have some minor differences, or a time limit on usage, like 12-36 months.  Sometimes these versions also leave a watermark on the final product, so be sure to check if you decide to buy your student one of the educational versions.

[Rob Silliman]

You might also want to check and see what sort of upgrade plans are in place.  Get a current version now - and spend much less on an upgrade when the final version comes out.

[Joe Copalman]

Wow.  Very cool.

Lots of stuff I want, but it's also stuff I've been doing alright without.  I guess it will all boil down to whether I want to spend a few hundred bucks on something that is not a camera or a lens, or if I want to spend the extra 10-20 minutes I'd spend trying to rescue jacked-up photos like this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/24526864@N03/4333394396/, where the entire bottom 1/3 of the photo was eaten up by those four stupid trees we all hate down in Tucson.  I don't have too many photos I feel this strongly about trying to rescue, so for now I think I'll keep my money.

[Chris V]

I just ebayed a bunch of old car parts last month so I have the cash for the upgrade when it comes out 

[Jay Beckman]

Don't forget that Lightroom Ver 3 is also very near release and the reports from Beta show that it has some solid improvements as well.

[Jay Beckman]

One other thought about CS5 and Content Aware Fill...

It will make removing watermarks much, much easier.  I'm sure people think my three-line watermark with one right through the middle is overkill, but I'd suggest folks give some thought to how they can best protect their work when we're now faced with such clever software.

[Jay Beckman]

Revisiting Content Aware Fill...

Before:


After:


A few areas along the fence line that could use further clean up but not too shabby I think...