a580 raw and CS3

[Robert Besen]

I have photoshop CS3, and it doesn't recognize the raw files from my a580. The download page for ACR 6.3, which has a580 support, says it won't work for versions of photoshop earlier than CS5. What options do I have?

[DonSchap]

I have photoshop CS3, and it doesn't recognize the raw files from my a580. The download page for ACR 6.3, which has a580 support, says it won't work for versions of photoshop earlier than CS5. What options do I have?

Upgrade?

Use the latest version Photoshop Elements (9) until you can afford to make the real leap. You may be able to convert your images from RAW to JPEG ... and then use CS3 to play with them. This is just an idea. Elements may not be completely RAW capable.

There are "educationally-priced" CS5 if you qualify as a student or educator.

[Robert Besen]

Thanks for replying Don. I do quallify for the educational discount, but I'd rather not upgrade at the moment, and I don't want to use elements.

I read somewhere that you can use the Adobe DNG converter and the resultant files will open in ACR in CS3. Has anyone tried this? It seems pretty clunky.

[Peekayoh]

Download a trial version of DxO Pro. Keep you going for a month anyway.

[Robert Besen]

I downloaded the lightroom demo, but I want a permanent solution. I'll buy CS5 eventually, but I just spent $700 on the camera so I'll wait a bit. I downloaded the latest dng converter last night and it works fine, as far as I can tell. I can't evaluate the conversion quality, and I don't want to delete the original .arw files but it's workable. So for each raw image I have a arw and dng version, and then when I process in photoshop I end up with as psd also. Time to get a bigger hard drive.