Adobe CS3 and Lightroom 3 for Mark IV

I've been running Adobe CS3 and Lightroom 1.4 with good results with my Mark II RAW files so I've put off upgrading Lightroom for quite a while. With the addition of a Mark IV I'm now in need of an upgrade.

Will Lightroom 3 convert the Mark IV RAW files to dng format? Will CS3 be sufficient for the time being while running Lightroom 3? I'd prefer to wait a bit longer to upgrade to CS5 if possible. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

In my opinion yeah -- LR3 will handle your Raw files nicely, and CS3 will give you all that you will need in extra processing until you decide you want CS5. Just understand that LR3 files will not be compatible with CS3 processing.

LR3 is a much better raw converter then ACR4 and much, much better then LR 1.4. You can use the free DNG converter to open 1DMk4 files in any version ACR / LR though.

On the "compatibility" Tony mentions: http://www.lightroomqu​een.com …ion-of-acr-and-photoshop/

Thanks very much Tony and Rene.

So just to be clear, CS3 will open/handle the Lightroom 3 files (saved out of LR3 as 16 bit TIF) but with some limitations? I need to go through Rene's link a little more thoroughly tonight when I have time.

Thanks for your time and patience.

PSCS3 will open LR3 generated tif or psd file without any limitations.
If you select a Raw (or DNG) in LR3 and choose "edit in Photoshop CS3", the file is transferred to ACR, to be opened in PS. That's when you run into differences.

René Damkot wrote in post #12023777
PSCS3 will open LR3 generated tif or psd file without any limitations.
If you select a Raw (or DNG) in LR3 and choose "edit in Photoshop CS3", the file is transferred to ACR, to be opened in PS. That's when you run into differences.

Ahh, ok - that's great news. Avoiding a Photoshop upgrade right now is a good thing for me. Thank you VERY much for the info and your time Rene.

You should be able to work between CS3 and LR3 just fine!

tonylong wrote in post #12025676
You should be able to work between CS3 and LR3 just fine!

Thank you Tony. Ordering LR 3 now.

Great!

You should note that the two Raw processors aren't totally compatible -- even though LR3 has the same tools that CS3 has in Camera Raw 4.6 the "engine" has been reworked. So, for example, if you work on a Raw file in LR3 and then decide you want to open it in Camera Raw (using the Save metadata to File function) you would be in for a less-than-expected result! This could affect things if, say, you decided to try to create a Pano or HDR using Bridge without going through the route of using Edit in Photoshop.