What's the cheapest (legal!) path to CS5?

[sweasel]

Ugh. My current version of Photoshop is CS. Digging around today, it looks like the oldest version allowable for an upgrade is CS2.

Swell.

So, I'm sure somebody here has done the calculations on the cheapest path to a full Photoshop (and no, there's no way on earth I can call myself a student).

Is it Elements > Photoshop? Is it a used copy of CS2 > Photoshop? Or is there some other way to skin this cat?

Buying it outright is even more painful in the UK than it is in the US. Checking in with Amazon, the full version is around £600 -- that's $918 American (whereas the price at the US site is $624.99). As an upgrade, it's £180 -- $275 ($161.19 in the US).

Why the difference in price? Because ripoff is why. Everything here is like that. You should try to gas up a car!

I've just dug into my dwindling savings for a new machine. You can imagine how eager I am to spend almost as much for a piece of software.

 

[iDad]

Some times your better off just biting the bullet

 

[sweasel]

A thousand bucks worth? Eesh.

 

[Steve]

Not much of a savings upgrading from CS or buying new.
If you have a student or teacher in the family the products are highly discounted.
"Technically" though is this legal if they buy it and you use it??

 

[sweasel]

They usually justify the high cost of things in Britain by pointing out that everything is more expensive -- gas is more expensive, so moving things around is more expensive, and heating offices is more expensive and paying workers is more expensive...and on and on.

I think that theory falls apart when it's $300 more expensive to download something off the internet in England.


Don't mind me. I'm going to go sit over there in the corner and weep silently.

 

[Steve]

Chin up, stiff upper lip and all that.