Elements 9 can't do 16MP?

HI.

Quick background: I have Elements 8. Won't work with Canon T3i Raw files, even with new plug in CR4 from Adobe website.

I can upgrade from Elements 8 to Elements 9 but....

Abode sales guy says Elements 9 cannot take advantage of 16MP files. He talked about going to Lightroom or CS in order to get full benefit of the 16MP of the camera.

Does that pass the sniff test?

Thanks for any counsel.

Smells like BS to me.

I think he is talking about 16 bit files as opposed to 8 bit files.

Tim

Greg_8 wrote in post #12360022
HI.

Quick background: I have Elements 8. Won't work with Canon T3i Raw files, even with new plug in CR4 from Adobe website.

I can upgrade from Elements 8 to Elements 9 but....

Abode sales guy says Elements 9 cannot take advantage of 16MP files. He talked about going to Lightroom or CS in order to get full benefit of the 16MP of the camera.

Does that pass the sniff test?

Thanks for any counsel.

I do believe that is 16 bit and not 16Mb. I haven't used elements since version 6, and one reason I went finally went with Photoshop CS* was because I need to work with 16 bit rather than 8 bit files.
Nevertheless, if I am not mistaken newer version of Photoshop Elements now include the Adobe Camera Raw Plugin so that you can open your Raw files and import them into Elements. How exactly it does that I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it allows you to import it into elements as a 16 bit file or converts it to 8 bit first, I imagine it is the later otherwise a lot of people wouldn't be buying CS.

Having said that, if the sales person told you that, I am guessing he is trying to sell you Photoshop CS5 vs Photoshop Elements 9.

I believe if you downloaded ACR for Elements you it might have installed wrong or in the wrong directory.
Here is the download page with instructions.
http://kb2.adobe.com/c​ps/863/cpsid_86312.htm​l
Make sure you follow the instruction precisely for installing Camera Raw 6.3 for Photoshop Elements 8.

If you do purchase Elements 9 it should install it, and then will still automatically search for and install any updates since it's release date.

Elements 9 can work with 16bit files (somewhat)...you are limited as to what you can do with them...so he is half right

As you already know, the T3i requires ACR6.4, and Elements 8 only supports up to ACR6.2.

(Source: http://kb2.adobe.com/c​ps/407/kb407110.html )

Elements 8 and 9 can both work with 16-bit files. The version of ACR that comes with Elements will export a 16-bit TIFF and Elements can do quite a few things with that. However, if you need to do anything with layers or certain of the filters then Elements will need to downconvert to 8 bits (which it will do automatically after getting your permission). One of my books recommends doing just that -- make global edits in 16 bit and then convert to 8 bit if you need to make local edits.

I've helped a friend work with files from his 7D (18MP) using both Elements 8 and 9 with no problem at all. As others have said, your contact seems to be confusing MP with bits.

Of course, you could always use DPP to produce a 16-bit TIFF and then work with that in Elements 8. (The no-additional-cost-option )

I have PSE9. I convert RAW in DPP to 16bit TIF. When I bring it into PS9 it will not let me do ANYTHING with the16bit TIF until it coverts it to an 8bit TIF.
What is MP?

Gil Bean wrote in post #12360714
I have PSE9. I convert RAW in DPP to 16bit TIF. When I bring it into PS9 it will not let me do ANYTHING with the16bit TIF until it coverts it to an 8bit TIF.
What is MP?

The only thing I can think of is MP = Mega Pixels. But I honestly think the OP meant 16 Bit.

With some of these high resolution cameras, that would really suck if he did mean Mega-pixels.

Gil Bean wrote in post #12360714
I have PSE9. I convert RAW in DPP to 16bit TIF. When I bring it into PS9 it will not let me do ANYTHING with the16bit TIF until it coverts it to an 8bit TIF....

That doesn't match my experience, for whatever that's worth. My copy of PSE9 will do quite a few things with a 16-bit TIFF that has been produced by DPP, including Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Cropping, etc. Can't do Layers, Transforms, etc. Just tested it again to make sure my memory wasn't faulty.

Rimmer wrote in post #12361075
That doesn't match my experience, for whatever that's worth. My copy of PSE9 will do quite a few things with a 16-bit TIFF that has been produced by DPP, including Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Cropping, etc. Can't do Layers, Transforms, etc. Just tested it again to make sure my memory wasn't faulty.

I wouldn't call that "quite a few things". You can't do any real image modifications such as lasso, clone, heal where you get into changing pixels.

Thanks to all for your replies. They are interesting, even though mostly way over my head. I'm so new, I am wanting to open my first files in raw just to try to it out and see if I should be using it over JPEG.

I am pretty sure the sales guy said Megapixel (I used MP) because the discussion was started by him asking me what camera I had and how many megapixel it has. He was leading the conversation and got me to believe that I would lose data when editing a CR2 file from a T3i camera if edited in PSE9 and that I would not lose data if editing a CR2 file in either Lightroom or CS.

I'd say it was a typical "not-enough information" by a salesguy. As far as handling the 16MP, Elements is fine. What is getting mixed up is that Elements has a limited abiltity to handle 16 bits-per-channel files before you have to convert to 8 bits-per-channel. This is true no matter what camera or what version of Elements. Shooting in Raw will help you get around this -- you process your files for the "deepest" things before converting to 8 bits. You actually have to convert to 8 bits in other apps like Photoshop/Lightroom in order to show on the Web or use an external printer.

Rimmer wrote in post #12360702
As you already know, the T3i requires ACR6.4, and Elements 8 only supports up to ACR6.2.

Easy solution is to download the free DNG converter...

Greg_8 wrote in post #12362601
Thanks to all for your replies. They are interesting, even though mostly way over my head. I'm so new, I am wanting to open my first files in raw just to try to it out and see if I should be using it over JPEG.

I am pretty sure the sales guy said Megapixel (I used MP) because the discussion was started by him asking me what camera I had and how many megapixel it has. He was leading the conversation and got me to believe that I would lose data when editing a CR2 file from a T3i camera if edited in PSE9 and that I would not lose data if editing a CR2 file in either Lightroom or CS.

In other words he would rather sell you software that has a price tag of either $299.00 or $699.0 vs something you can get for less than $100.00 that will have all you should need for general photography.

I still don't think he meant Megapixels, if he did, not many people who use most newer DSLR's would be buying it, and most people don't need LR or CS5.
If he did mean Megapixels, he doesn't know what he is talking about.
It is a matter of 16 bit vs 8 bit editing as previously explained by others here.