Looking for some advice on the 27" iMac and Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 (maybe)

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Hello - I'm new here. I am just about to lose my sanity due to problems with Windows 7 and Photoshop Elements 8 (and Element 7 too but Adobe assured me all my problems would be solved with 8 - grrrrrrrr).

So I am in the market for a new Mac - either an iMac (hoping the jaundiced screen problem is being fixed as week speak) or a Mac Pro with the 30" Cinema Monitor. My question is this - is Photoshop CS4 really going to work on either of these machines? I'll spend whatever I need to spend to get a solution that actually works.

Should I bother with Elements anymore? Should I just go with CS4 and hope for the best? Any advice would be seriously appreciated here.
 
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27" i7 iMac 2.8 Ghz, 1TB, 8GB RAM | 13" MBP 2.53Ghz 320GB HD, 4G RAM | iPad 2 64GB+3G *WHITE*
CS4 will most defiantly work on either no problem... i have the 27" iMac and is a joy to work on daily.. i love the large screen.
 
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nMP 6-core/32Gb/D700/512Gb: rMBP 15" 2.3GHz/16Gb/512Gb: iPhone 6 128Gb: iPad Air 2 128Gb: NEC PA322U
CS4 will work brilliantly on either machine.

To decide whether Lightroom and/or Photoshop is right for you go to the Adobe website and download a 30-day trial.

Apple also have Aperture which is like Lightroom although IMO not as good however, you can get a trial from Apple for this too.
 
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CS4 will most defiantly work on either no problem... i have the 27" iMac and is a joy to work on daily.. i love the large screen.

Thanks for the reply! Have you noticed any problems with the flickering screen yet? It sound like there is a 3 week delay in shipping the iMacs and people are wondering if the delay isn't due to Apple finding a fix for the problem. How do you like the glossy screen? These are the two reasons I've been looking at the Pro Mac - the 30" monitor has a matte finish and no known color or flickering problems.
 
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21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
WOW i run PS CS4 on my White MB as well as LR. With the upgrade to 4GB RAM mind you but it runs sooo smooth and no delay in rendering and such.
My only down fall is the real estate :(
 
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nMP 6-core/32Gb/D700/512Gb: rMBP 15" 2.3GHz/16Gb/512Gb: iPhone 6 128Gb: iPad Air 2 128Gb: NEC PA322U
If you are able to go for the Mac Pro and 30" ACD go for it.

That's been my setup for the past 12 months and I've loved every moment of it.

However, IMO the performance of the Mac Pro isn't used in these apps so if I was in the market for a desktop I'd opt for the 27" iMac and get a monitor calibrator. The 27" screen has LED backlighting too which is more accurate than the CCFL in the ACD although I've never had a problem with mine rendering color.
 
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I don't really see LR and Photoshop as competitors to each other (and neither does Adobe). They are intended to complement each other.

I have personally found Elements 6 (I don't have 8 yet) pretty delightful, but I also own "real" Photoshop so perhaps if it was my only photo-editing program I'd feel a little differently about it.

And, as seen in my signature, at some point soon you'll have yet ANOTHER good option. :)
 
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I don't really see LR and Photoshop as competitors to each other (and neither does Adobe). They are intended to complement each other.

I have personally found Elements 6 (I don't have 8 yet) pretty delightful, but I also own "real" Photoshop so perhaps if it was my only photo-editing program I'd feel a little differently about it.

And, as seen in my signature, at some point soon you'll have yet ANOTHER good option. :)

Oh, no, another option?? I can barely make any decisions right now.

Yes, I agree that PS and LR are not competitors. I was looking on wikipedia and it almost seems like LR is a good organizing product similar to the Organizer feature in Elements. I really like the Organizer in PSE and I'm not sure if PS CS4 has anything like that. Or is it just an editing program and I will need to get LR too. And what the heck is Bridge??
 
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Bridge is like a browsing platform. To be honest the quick look and spotlight on macs make it fairly easy to find images anyway, but you can tag your images, group them into collections and launch them into various programs like photoshop.

It kind of makes lightroom a bit redundant, I personally use bridge over lightroom for my organizing. Although lightroom is a good import tool

bridge is free anyway
and as for photoshop CS4 not working on any mac... luh-ol redundant question. There's a reason why 99% of creatives work on mac's and not pc's
 
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MacBook 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo | 1GB RAM | OS X 10.6.3 | 250GB External HD | 8GB iPod Touch 1st Gen 3.1.3
Bridge is like a browsing platform. To be honest the quick look and spotlight on macs make it fairly easy to find images anyway, but you can tag your images, group them into collections and launch them into various programs like photoshop.

Very true. I used to use Bridge, but I removed it from my dock ever since I made a folder containing all the pictures I use/d in Photoshop.

I made a folder and named it Graphic Designs, and that is now the default finder window.

Screen shot 2010-02-03 at 10.11.58 PM.png
 

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