Money is tight.  Very tight.   So, that aside I am curious to know if any of you who use photoshop have CS4.  I have CS2 and the upgrade price is $199 US (not the extended version for video, etc.).  

CS4 appears to have some interesting features, many of which will likely be lost to me just as the full potentials of CS and CS2 were and have not been fully utalized in what I do. But, I use what I need.

Comments please:  Is an upgrade to CS4 worth it?        Thanks.      TomD'Art.

I have and have had CS3 for some time and I am still learning what is available, especially with RAW. I have a few friends that are using CS4 and although they like some of the advancements to CS4, I have not heard of any "Oh Wow!" this is so great!" I guess what it is that you need is a variant from CS2 or 3. Personally. I am, waiting for CS5. Sorry, not much help but that's my two cents.

Even 1 cent is appreciated and 2 cents even more. Thanks.     Tom.

Hi Tom!

With the work I see on this site I realize I have soooo much to learn about CS2, that I could probably spend out my remaining days learning, so I will probably not upgrade until some "wow" thing draws me in. Trouble is, I'm a complete sucker for the "wow" thing!

Wayne Hope

It depence. I have a really old Photoshop and I mostly use Paint shop pro 9.  That is why I havent spent money on an newer Photoshop over the years.  I most also admit, that i am not so good at Photoshop of the same reason. Havent been able to get used to it well.

What I find very defective is the Icon system on the old version.  I mean shortcut Icons to use instead of the drop down system and the UNDO, which can only be done a few times backward and only in the drop down or on the keys. Could have been better to be able to have an Icon for that. Just like in this reply window. (atleast I have not been able to produce any icons for it.?)

How is that on the last new version in that matter and how will the brand new be?
I like very much the brush system. Very easy to work with. And they are BIG :)

 The only reason i would upgrade from cs2 to cs4+ is if i upgraded my camera and Adobe Camera Raw in cs2 doesnt support it... even then i would consider just getting lightroom instead...

no experience with cs3/cs4 or lightroom I'm afraid so can't offer any advice stemming from on-hands experience but.... apart from whatever new tools though I heard cs4 is essentially a 'faster photoshop' - it has inbuilt graphic acceleration which apparently means you spend a lot less time waiting for screens to load/commands to complete.... also instead of only being able to properly judge an image at (for example) 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100% due to anti-aliasing applied at other values, cs4 now shows a crisp image in spite of the zoom ratio.

Rich mate, even THAT wouldn't strictly be a reason for upgrade - my 40d raw files aren't recognised by Bridge/Photoshop cs2 but I get around it by batch-converting them all to .dng files as soon as they're on the machine, then wipe the original RAWs. admittedly my average .dng file (lossless, with RAW embedded, just in case) is just shy of 20mb, but I guess it makes me more selective which ones I keep and I end up with a more satisfying selection at the end having gotten rid of everything just taking up space.. 

I certainly appreciate all the thoughts and these are good ones.  After getting past the impulse to upgrade and giving it more realistic consideration, I will stick with what I have a while longer.

The money may be better spent on fuel for my truck, searching for magical lighting and composition of view. 
Thanks,     Tom.

I use CS4 not because of the wow factors, but because of the many improvements to the program, it is now more highly suited to photographers, it now runs much more faster and efficiantly, also there is the added bonus of the content aware scalling process, it really can be a godsend when resizing images and keeping a good aspect ratio, there is also a good benefit in the newly designed interface, which puts old imroved favourite tools in thier own special areas so that one does not need to go searching for things like levels curves and such like, it's vastly inproved in the new CS4 version, it is all integrated into a better and more efficient workflow...The new adjustment layers window is a great time saver.

PD, thanks for your positive remarks about the program as a user.  I was really close to upgrade in my mind but more reasonable me pulled out my wallet and said no, not now.
The content aware scaling is something I have seen mentioned elesewhare in favorable ways.    thanks.    Tom.

I used to have CS2 and used it extensively... then got a new computer with Vista.  I upgraded to CS4, and was not amused.  I am still struggling with understanding parts of it, and it seems to have a mind of its own.  I wish to go back to CS2, but that is not as compatible with my OS. It would almost be worth it to install XP on my new computer, sometimes.  Well, I'm not ready for that, yet, and I think a good book on CS4 is in my near future.  My advice is stick with the CS2, for it has a lot better tools, some of which are missing from the CS4.