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If I thought the switch was inevitable…
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[Bret Williams] ” I’m surprised when I find editors that don’t own it”
We all have at least a few components, and if you don’t have Photoshop, I don’t know what to say.
DVD Studio Pro started freezing to death a few years ago, just when we really needed Apple to step up with BluRay support. For a long time, I stood outside the store gazing longingly at Encore, but you have to buy the whole suite to get it — but as soon the incentives kicked in, I clicked the “buy” button. I have almost completely ditched DVD Studio Pro. Encore is a little harder to navigate, but it sure makes up for it in operability — subtitles were a catastrophe in DVD Studio Pro, where the Adobe app just sucks them in and lets you do whatever you want with ’em. Make new ones up if you want.
Saying that, I’m not really a Premiere user (even though I learned a great deal about NLE with an early version). But there’s also nothing wrong with having a deep resource base of support applications.
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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[Bret Williams] “Please don’t compare BorisRed to AE. Ugh. And are we not forgetting Photoshop? How invaluable an app is that? What else does the Produciton Premium bundle have? Illustrator, Flash, Audition. Really there is no comparison. The PP suite is just flat out amazing. I’m surprised when I find editors that don’t own it. It’s tantamount to working in an office without using, well, MS Office. I guess if you’re working in a void making event videos you can get away with it, but if you’re working with corporate clients at all eventually someone hands you an illustrator file or a psd”
$600 is a lot for an upgrade. Most people will use some (or several) of the Adobe apps, but very few people use all those apps every single week. I think the point you’re missing is look what FCS gave you for a $300 upgrade. All those apps that were all video related. I used them all, save one, every single week. When they added the formerly $25K Color program, the price didn’t budge one bit. I think this is the point that people might be making?
I’ve spoken to Adobe about this… they know that their upgrade pricing isn’t popular… and Lance, Steve, et al are right IMO, the 5.5 update was overpriced in my unqualified opinion…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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“[Mitch Ives] $600 is a lot for an upgrade.”
I guess that depends on your frame of reference. If you work at all in 3D, $500-$1,200 for an update is not uncommon (msa or otherwise), and that’s (often) for just one application. I just don’t see how Adobe’s policies are any more egregious in this regard.
“[Mitch Ives] …and Lance, Steve, et al are right IMO, the 5.5 update was overpriced in my unqualified opinion…”
Doesn’t this point to the fact that the value of the Adobe Suite depends completely on what you use it for? If for instance, you only use it for Photoshop and Encore, then yes, $600.00 is steep. But for me (and many others I think), the return and tighter integration with Audition, refined support for Red files, the Warp Stabilizer tool and a bunch of smaller fixes made it well worth the price.
“I think the point you’re missing is look what FCS gave you for a $300 upgrade.”
No, I get that point. But I think it’s fair to say that it was an unusually generous upgrade… just as the final pricing for Shake was unusually generous.
Shawn
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[Mitch Ives] “$600 is a lot for an upgrade.”
Relative to FCP or Media Composer? Yes. Relative to some other apps? Certainly not.
Autodesk charges $495 for annual maintenance on 3ds Max, $595 for annual maintenance on Maya, and $1,995 for annual maintenance on Smoke. Maxon charges $650 for annual maintenance on Cinema 4D Studio. These prices are all yearly fees for updates to a single application.
Considering the breadth of tools in the Adobe suites, I think a $400 upgrade for Production Premium or a $550 upgrade for Master Collection isn’t that bad.
[Mitch Ives] “Most people will use some (or several) of the Adobe apps, but very few people use all those apps every single week.”
I guess that depends on what you do. I use Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects every day at work.
If you only use one application or use several applications, but only very sparingly, I can understand how the upgrades might seem steep. However, if you use multiple applications in the suite and use them regularly, I think it provides a lot of value.
[Mitch Ives] “I think the point you’re missing is look what FCS gave you for a $300 upgrade.”
It’s true that FCS upgrades offered a lot of value — but remember that this may be somewhat subsidized by Apple hardware sales.
[Mitch Ives] “I’ve spoken to Adobe about this… they know that their upgrade pricing isn’t popular…”
Adobe has announced Adobe Creative Cloud [link], which will give customers another licensing option.
I’m curious for your opinion: is subscription pricing better or worse for you than perpetual licenses and upgrades?
[Mitch Ives] “Lance, Steve, et al are right IMO, the 5.5 update was overpriced in my unqualified opinion…”
With perpetual licensing, you do have the option of not purchasing the upgrades if you don’t think they’re worthwhile. I skipped CS4 because I didn’t think there was enough in it for me. On the other hand, I have been very pleased with both the CS5 and CS5.5 upgrades.
Programs like Photoshop and After Effects are used very, very broadly, so I’m not surprised that some upgrades are more valuable to some users than others. You can’t please everyone all the time, right?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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