Ok just installed Tiger (with surprisingly no problems at all) and CS2 on my Mac. After using Photoshop CS2 for just 5 minutes it's become immediately apparent that this is no small 'gimmicky' update that some have sceptically suggested. I have been a retoucher for over 20 years now originally using Barco and Alias systems and migrating to Photoshop as soon as it became colour capable (yes it was only monochromatic at one point in the dark ages). I can honestly say that from what I've seen in such a short time that this is a great upgrade. If for no other reason, it's worth it's weight in gold to amateur digital photographers/retouchers for its new 'smart' functions for sharpening/blurring and Neat Image style smoothing capabilities. The new Camera Raw upgrade specifically written for CS2 looks the business as well with enhanced chromatic aberration correction tools. I thought I'd compare the functionality of this plug between CS2 and Elements 3 (the only 2 apps it will work with) and the CS2 version blows it all out of the water. I believe the correct term coined by the youf' of today for this suite is that it is now a Killer App delivering a mortal blow to any of its rivals. Quark would be wasting their time even trying to match it and even if they did their notorious exorbitant pricing structure would squeeze themselves out of the running. START SAVING NOW!

is the batch processing improved in CS2? it was something i could never figgure out in CS, so i use Nikon Capture for RAW conversion where its nice and simple. do you know if they've improved it so you can actually figgure out what the heck you're telling it to do?

Just for the record I'd like to clarify: I didn't say that the update was 'gimmicky,' I only suggested that you should evaluate which new features are gimmicks to you and which you'd actually use before buying the update. For instance I think x is a fun feature to play with but I can't see myself using it in my work.

Easy Tiger :-) I wasnt referring to any Caedes members rather than to articles I have read in some trade mags written by sceptical old hacks!

My own approach is to just deny the existance of any PS version higher than 6.0. I've saved a lot of money so far. ;-)

Carl - I havent got round to testing the batch controls yet but the new Camera Raw tool is quite intuitive and previews pretty accurately. I did notice on the automator function within the Tiger operating system that photoshop batch processing can be built into that as well - dont know how comprehensive that is will have to dig deeper....

I was kind of clinging onto that philosophy myself until I bought a new camera that only had Camera Raw support in CS2. Cynical marketing exercise I hear you cry - youd probably be right....

I tried just sticking to the Canon RAW converter software but at best I found it clunky and not very accurate and at worst just plain old crap :-)