Sure the video is a little cheesy but the new features in CS5.5 look pretty nice. The Warp stabilizer and audio features are the things I’m most interested in trying out. But I’m still not sure If I want to pay the upgrade fee, or hold out for CS6. Every adobe release seems to be the “ultimate” in features, but most of the time I don’t find myself actually needing many of those new upgrades.

I’ve even considered downgrading to Premiere Elements. It seems like most of the time I just need to slice up some clips, do some basic editing, and add some text. I only end up using After Effects 3 or 4 times a month. I wish there was a way that I could rent After Effects for a small fee, like $5 a day, then return it when I’m done. That way I don’t have to spend $400 or $500 on an upgrade every year.

If you’re a student, $400 gets you Premiere Pro, after effects, Audition, Photoshop, and Encore. This is defiantly worth it, but if you’re paying full price, you might want to consider what you really need, versus what you want. Sometimes you can get away with cheap tools if you only need to use them on the weekends.


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