Which software for a guy with an empty wallet?

Intheswamp wrote in post #17167332
Update:

Well, I kept going over things and decided that besides the editing abilities that right now I really need to get my images better organized so I bought a copy of LR5 from a vendor on eBay. It should be here by the end of this coming week. What I need to do next is update the computer some...still running XP with 3gb of ram. I picked up a used computer with Win7 64-bit loaded on it a while back that I need to drag out of the box and get set up...it has 4gb of ram but will ultimately have 8gb of memory. I know, it won't be a killer machine...but should handle photo editing better than the XP machine. I'm kinda stepping out on faith on all of this being as I've gotta have a heart cath Monday. So, the time frame for getting the computer up and going and LR5 installed along with everything else is kind of pending...hopefully it won't be long, though!!!

Anyhow, just thought I'd touch back with where I'm at on this.

Thanks for all of the feedback,
Ed

Yikes, Ed, You may have problems with Lightroom, because the newest versions of Lightroom need to run on on a 32-bit system! Check it out, you may need to check out of LR and take another route!

<sigh> Well, if that don't beat all... I guess I'll just stick with CS2 and DPP as CDS mentioned and relist my copy of LR5 on eBay. Thanks for pointing that out, Tony. Better to find out ahead of time than when I try to install. Ah well, I won't worry to much about it for now.

Alan, thanks for the well wishes...it really wasn't expected...I just thought I was getting old. My "therapy" has been using the camera and keeping honey bees...the bees have had to fend for themselves the last month or so, though. I wish you well, too.

Be well,
Ed

tonylong wrote in post #17167760
Yikes, Ed, You may have problems with Lightroom, because the newest versions of Lightroom need to run on on a 32-bit system! Check it out, you may need to check out of LR and take another route!

I thought XP was 32-bit. OP might have trouble with just 3GB of RAM, though. I just purchased Lightroom 5.2 and upgraded to 5.6 and it runs fine on Windows 7 64-bit with 16GB of RAM.

I'm new to RAW, so I'm trying Lightroom 5.x and Elements 11. I tried GIMP, but I just didn't want to take the time to learn it.

A quick check of the Adobe Lightroom 5 system requirements listed on the box...

Windows 7 SP 1 or Windows 8.
2GB RAM, 4GB recommended (we all know how that goes - get at least 8GB).
2GB available hard drive space.

Although I've been a proponent of LR since the early days (2007) It's true that as of I believe LR4 you need I think a 64-bit OS. I made the move to Windows 7 64 bit. Yes there is a cost, so for a senior citizen with a limited income, I'm not sure what to suggest, since that pretty much describes me at the present...any future purchase is counting nickels and dimes, so I understand...

I have LR4.4 running fine on 32 bit Vista. I had the first public beta of LR5 running on the same machine. It has only 3 GB of RAM. Since CS6 the creative Suite applications have required a 64 bit OS, but I believe LR along with PSE will still run on 32 bit systems. I would think if there was some way to call it ACR would still run too, I don't see Adobe keeping two versions, and we know PSE's ACR version will honour commands from tools in the full version that are missing from Elements.

Alan

I think I may have caused some confusion by not being clear about something. Or, I am further confused about the functionality of LR5 on a 64-bit Win7 machine...

My intentions were not to load it on my XP machine, but to wait until I get the 64-bit Win7 one up and running and load LR5 on it. Tony, did you mean to say that it needs a 64-bit system to run on? It sounds like several folks have LR5 running on 64-bit Win7 machines and even on Vista so maybe I'm not out of luck? I found this LR5.5 Installation Readme on the Adobe website...it states that there is both a 32-bit and a 64-bit installer in the downloadable version... But, I don't know if that is the current version or not and whether the most recent one has been changed to 32-bit only.

My current confusion level at the moment is similar to that of the varied branches of the US government. (But not quiet to that extreme. )

Ed

Ed, I think the confusion was on my part. From what Al says above he had LR4 running on 32-bit Vista. I think I got mixed up, I think LR4 won't run on the XP machine, but I guess it's fine with Vista and newer, whether 32-but or 64-bit.

That sounds promising, Tony. I'm still confused, but my wife says I stay that way. I'll report back on how it goes. Before installing LR5 I'm going to replace the hard drive in the 64-bit machine and reinstall Win7. It might get fun with Microsoft and their validation hoops before it's over with.

I'll report back with how it goes.

Ed

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #17167418
Yes, use DPP and CS2.

I still heavily rely on CS2 and DPP myself, though I prefer some other RAW converters.

Which raw converters do you prefer, if I may ask?

Don't mean to highjack the thread.

Intheswamp wrote in post #17170198
That sounds promising, Tony. I'm still confused, but my wife says I stay that way. I'll report back on how it goes. Before installing LR5 I'm going to replace the hard drive in the 64-bit machine and reinstall Win7. It might get fun with Microsoft and their validation hoops before it's over with.

I'll report back with how it goes.

Ed

Ed, I don't even want to talk about how things have gone for me recently!