Link via ars technica
It’s truly impressive that Photoshop CS5 is successful at adding a lot of useful, engineering-heavy features in CS5, all while porting over to a new and stable Cocoa 64-bit code-base on OS X. And it’s encouraging to see that a program that has no real competitors isn’t just being phoned in. Against the on-going daytime drama of “Apple vs. Flash,” Photoshop is still just a great program and CS5 is a worthwhile update for a broad cross-section of users. My complaints are about minor issues—things like the low-res preview in HDR Merge Pro or window layering with AIR filters—can be addressed in a x.1 update without really slowing people down in the meantime. Nine thumbs up.
Pros
- Stable and fast 64-bit release on OS X
- Local tone-mapping works very well
- HDR image-based lights for 3D rendering
- Wet media brushes with 3D preview
- Puppet Warp
- 3D type and path features with Repoussé
- Content-Aware Fill and Heal tools are exceptional
- New lens distortion correction with publicly updatable database
- Improved 3D texturing/mesh handling
- Finally has capable masking tools
- Camera RAW 6 and its much-improved noise reduction
Cons
- Low-res HDR Merge Pro preview is very limiting
- Ghost suppression in HDR Merge Pro has problems
- 3D workflows still very finicky
- Still has very weak OpenEXR format handling
- Lack of good multithreading for many slow operations
The Verdict
- After being thrown yet another Apple platform curveball, Adobe produces another compelling Photoshop release
More details in the 8-page review at ars technica.
Photoshop CS5 Extended Student & Teacher Edition is available at an educational discount price of $198 from Creation Engine.
Photoshop CS5 Extended Nonprofit/Education Edition is available at an educational discount price of $298 from Creation Engine.
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