Is Adobe CS3 and Lightroom a must have?

[Coastie72]

Why is the Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom room software worth the difference in price from other products available. I have been looking hard, but is it a must have?
If so give me some examples please. I don't have money to burn but I will spend it if it is crtitical to my overall success.:confused:

[Mike R]

I used an inexpensive Raw program called Raw Shooter Premium and it was bought out by Adobe two weeks after I bought the program. Adobe gave me Lightroom 1.0 for free. Now that I have it, I'll stay with it and upgrade to 2.0. I also use Elements 6.0 which can be found for $69 after rebates. If you don't shoot in RAW, Elements is a great program. It even has limited RAW editing capabilities. I really think that CS3 has more options than most of us will ever use. Lightroom and Elements are are good combination to have if you shoot in RAW. Start with Elements and when you find that you need more in the way of a RAW editor then get Lightroom.

[primoz]

It depends. For me, Lightroom just doesn't work. I don't shoot in raw (or better to say, 99% of my stuff is shoot in jpeg, and for that 1%, when I shoot raw, I never shoot it on deadline opposed to when shooting jpeg), so I don't need specific raw converter. I'm used to PS, so I continue buying it. For Mac (at least latest ones) there's no other option then CS3 anyway, if you go Photoshop way of course, for PC, I'm sure, you can easily survive with CS2, or even older ones.
Then another thing to consider is your workflow. If you are used to PS, it's hard to switch. If you are not, then I guess there's cheaper or even free alternatives, but for me it's easier to pay then to spend bunch of time trying to get grip of completely different program.
So no, PS and/or Lightroom are not must have.

[Mark1]

The key to their keep, is how you do with the camera, And their final end. If you are just shooting for fun, and do a great job of exposure, Then you probably can get away with a lightweight editor. Canon Photo Pro, GIMP, Picassa ect...ect.

However if you are selling the pics it is worth getting the best, to make each print as perfect as it can get.

Honestly, right now I am basically relearning Photo as I have been out of the game for about 10 years. So I have no real need to have Lightroom. But I am going to buy it as soon as 2.0 comes out. I will get CS3 as soon as my images can pay for it themselves.

Just take in to account what you are doing with the images. Then do your homework on the editors. Almost every editor has a free trial. Try them all. See what one works for you. Dont just take our opinion.