Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers

Corey Graham · July 5th, 2011, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Tamés

Also keep in mind that Adobe offers very attractive education pricing to students, staff, and faculty of qualifying institutions, see: educational software pricing | Adobe

Amen. These "deals" that Adobe is offering are nothing compared to educational pricing. Their already ridiculous pricing is brought down to reasonable levels for educators and students.

Marcus Durham · July 8th, 2011, 04:16 AM

I'm very interested in this offer. Yes the price is still high but you get a hell of a lot more than Final Cut Suite used to give.

After Effects is an industry standard tool. No matter what some people claim, Motion doesn't really touch it. Of all the things I miss from when we switched to FCPS it's AE.

You also get Audition. I still have a licence for it in it's previous guise as Cooledit (and still use it via Parallels on a regular basis) and it's a wonderful audio editor. Blows away Soundtrack Pro even though it's knocking 9 years old so hopefully there's been 9 years worth of improvements.

You also get Photoshop, THE industry standard photo editing tool.

Then there's all the Flash stuff (increasingly important) and Illustrator. In short it's a whole suite of packages to help you be creative. It's expensive even with the discount but pound for pound you get far more.

And it also looks like they will send you a boxed version if you wish.

Seems to me Adobe have a whole range of packages which are designed for professional use whereas
Apple have been cutting back and dumbing down their range.

I still have a few things to find out about but it seems like 3 years after switching to FCP it's game over. The Adobe suite looks impressive, a 50% discount makes it look more affordable and Adobe have an active interest in developing professional software rather than selling iThings.

Mathieu Ghekiere · July 12th, 2011, 03:51 AM

Can anyone answer me these questions:

- Will a USA license work on my computer (I live in Europe) ?

- Where can you buy the software in New York, and can you ask for the promotion in a retail store too?

Thanks,

EDIT: Seems B&H has the software WITH promotion. Don't know if the license works here.

Brett Sherman · July 12th, 2011, 07:39 AM

It's a good deal, just to get Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Encore. However, Adobe charges so much for upgrades and upgrades so frequently that they could practically give away the suite the first time hoping that you'll upgrade at some point.

Pete Bauer · July 12th, 2011, 09:50 AM

The current upgrade price for PPro is only $179 and I did the math in my recent article to learn that upgrades for the whole Production Premium suite have been running under $35/month over time.

Everyone has their own threshold for "expensive" but IMO if you're a professional, that's not a big investment for the soft-tools with which you do your job. This is Adobe's core business; software isn't a loss-leader for more expensive hardware or a la carte pricing for core NLE functionalities, as is said to be the case for some other NLE vendors. So again, just my opinion, but I think Adobe's Creative Suites are good bang for buck. More buck, more bang. Good value.

As far as the overseas costs, this keeps being brought up and obviously nobody here on the forum knows. It is what it is.

Marcus Durham · July 12th, 2011, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brett Sherman

It's a good deal, just to get Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Encore. However, Adobe charges so much for upgrades and upgrades so frequently that they could practically give away the suite the first time hoping that you'll upgrade at some point.

Are you expected to go for each upgrade or can you skip a version without having to buy the full version the next time you upgrade?

Jon Braeley · July 12th, 2011, 12:38 PM

I started with Adobe Photoshop version one ... in 1991. And got just about every upgrade since but I stopped at CS3... way too many upgrades that were simply designed as extra revenue and offered little in return - and this was Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamwaver... all of them. And and yes most cost $199 or $299 ... but with 8 or 9 programs this adds up each year.

I got off the treadmill four years ago. So I am weary of Adobe. I will hold out a while.

Pete Bauer · July 12th, 2011, 01:24 PM

Jon, people make this kind of comment frequently and it makes no sense to me. Unless the company fails or they End-of-Life a product, all software companies put out new versions of their software...I'm glad that the competitive marketplace drives innovation because I wouldn't want to still be using 1994's Adobe Premiere (not Pro) on Win 3.11, eh? Nobody makes a person upgrade each time; they choose to do so. One can still use CS3 if it does the job and that costs nothing additional. If a person wants the new features of the latest version, they can decide if it is worth the asking price and if so, they'll buy.

Marcus, you can skip versions if you'd like (this is all discussed in the very brief article I linked to in my previous post). It does save a little money, but not that much really.

Andy Solaini · July 12th, 2011, 03:18 PM

How does this offer work? I mean surely it's not just a case of putting in the promo code? I can't find anything on the website that actually says what they require you to do with your old software. Or for that matter how do you prove you even have the old software they list?

Andy S

Marcus Durham · July 12th, 2011, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

Marcus, you can skip versions if you'd like (this is all discussed in the very brief article I linked to in my previous post). It does save a little money, but not that much really.

Thanks. I'll take a look. It's not so much a question of saving money, but sometimes companies put out updates that aren't necessarily worthwhile (FCP 7). So the option to skip a version may be worthwhile. Also if Adobe sneak out V6 soon you may not want to pay an upgrade fee straight away.

Nigel Barker · July 12th, 2011, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walter Brokx

And now I wonder whether a loyal Adobe user could get 50% off CS5.5 as well :-p

Sure, just enter the SWITCH code for 50% off although you are limited to 9 copies.

Nigel Barker · July 12th, 2011, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Solaini

How does this offer work? I mean surely it's not just a case of putting in the promo code? I can't find anything on the website that actually says what they require you to do with your old software. Or for that matter how do you prove you even have the old software they list?

Andy S

You simply have to enter the promo code SWITCH at the checkout or quote it if ordering on the phone. Adobe don't care what old software you have they are just trying to sell as many copies as possible to new users.

Steve Kalle · July 12th, 2011, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

Jon, people make this kind of comment frequently and it makes no sense to me. Unless the company fails or they End-of-Life a product, all software companies put out new versions of their software...I'm glad that the competitive marketplace drives innovation because I wouldn't want to still be using 1994's Adobe Premiere (not Pro) on Win 3.11, eh? Nobody makes a person upgrade each time; they choose to do so. One can still use CS3 if it does the job and that costs nothing additional. If a person wants the new features of the latest version, they can decide if it is worth the asking price and if so, they'll buy.

Marcus, you can skip versions if you'd like (this is all discussed in the very brief article I linked to in my previous post). It does save a little money, but not that much really.

I agree with Pete.

I really don't see the logic with not upgrading to Photoshop CS4 or CS5 because they have added amazing OpenGL support and are now 64bit which makes a HUUUGGGEEEE difference in speed. With large images (24MP from Sony A900) and panoramic images, the speed difference is even larger thanks to 64bit and better OpenGL acceleration. I have several 800MB to 1.2GB Photoshop PSDs and I can whiz through them with no problem.

Oh, and the Content Aware Fill tool in CS5 is one of the coolest features ever released for any piece of software.

FYI, Adobe has changed their update policy to once every year around NAB time so no worries about them 'sneaking' in an upgrade before then.

Andy Solaini · July 12th, 2011, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

You simply have to enter the promo code SWITCH at the checkout or quote it if ordering on the phone. Adobe don't care what old software you have they are just trying to sell as many copies as possible to new users.

So that's ALL they ask for? Why do they post the list of "required" previous software then? I'm not saying you are wrong or anything, I just want to make sure they won't request my FCP serial number and blacklist it somehow because I may need/want to use FCP sometime in the future. Same goes for a really old version of photoshop I have.

Bill Pryor · July 12th, 2011, 06:49 PM

I bought mine from the Adobe site. They make it really easy. You can keep your FCP. Same with the Avid discounted upgrade. Both companies figure if you get it you'll be a long time customer.

On Sunday i spent a couple of hours watching some training clips, then Monday at the office I opened PP up for the first time and in about 10 minutes was editing and checking out the color grading. The transition is going to be a lot easier and quicker than it was when I went from Avid to FCP 5 years ago.

One of the first things I said after watching some training videos was, "Wow...they sure have leapfrogged over FCP!" The title tool is amazing--a real title tool, just like Avid. So far I like the basic color correction better too, and a number of other things. In the 5 years I've used FCP, it hasn't really developed. The upgrades were tiny and only seemed to make it more stable. After just a very short introduction to PP, I'm now glad Apple did what they did. If they hadn't, I probably would never have looked at PP. I'm looking forward to migrating all my FCP programs over as soon as I can. I'm already convinced that FCP 7 has been way behind the curve and that Media Composer and now PP5.5 are better.

One big thing if you shoot with a 5DII or other DSLR...no more transcoding to ProRes. In the past year and a half I've added over 3 TB of footage over and above the H.264 original because of transcoding.

Not needing to transcode does bring up a backup consideration. What I had been doing is loading my original H.264 into one drive, then transcoding to another. So, the ProRes lives in other drives, while the original is in separate drives. If an H.264 drive fails, I've got the ProRes, and vice versa. What I started doing with new footage yesterday is loading it as I usually do, but then burning Blu-ray discs for backup. The Blu-rays will be stored like my old tapes. My Blu-ray burner came from Videoguys and was cheaper than a 2 TB hard drive. Also, the Blu-rays burn a lot faster than the transcoding through MPEG Streamclip.

According to Shane Hurlbut, Premiere Pro handles Canon DSLR footage better than the other systems. When I first looked at a clip in the timeline, it did look better than the same clip in FCP that had been transcoded to ProRes. Not a huge difference and nothing to get excited about, but there was a definite different look. The color seemed to pop more. Again, very subtle and I doubt I would notice the difference in a finished film, but if you're pixelpeeping (measurebating), it's something to look at.

July 8th, 2011, 04:16 AM	#32
Marcus Durham Major Player Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Hampshire, UK Posts: 693	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers I'm very interested in this offer. Yes the price is still high but you get a hell of a lot more than Final Cut Suite used to give. After Effects is an industry standard tool. No matter what some people claim, Motion doesn't really touch it. Of all the things I miss from when we switched to FCPS it's AE. You also get Audition. I still have a licence for it in it's previous guise as Cooledit (and still use it via Parallels on a regular basis) and it's a wonderful audio editor. Blows away Soundtrack Pro even though it's knocking 9 years old so hopefully there's been 9 years worth of improvements. You also get Photoshop, THE industry standard photo editing tool. Then there's all the Flash stuff (increasingly important) and Illustrator. In short it's a whole suite of packages to help you be creative. It's expensive even with the discount but pound for pound you get far more. And it also looks like they will send you a boxed version if you wish. Seems to me Adobe have a whole range of packages which are designed for professional use whereas Apple have been cutting back and dumbing down their range. I still have a few things to find out about but it seems like 3 years after switching to FCP it's game over. The Adobe suite looks impressive, a 50% discount makes it look more affordable and Adobe have an active interest in developing professional software rather than selling iThings. __________________ Marcus Durham Media2u, Corporate Video Production For Your Business - http://www.media2u.co.uk

July 12th, 2011, 03:51 AM	#33
Mathieu Ghekiere Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Belgium Posts: 2,195	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers Can anyone answer me these questions: - Will a USA license work on my computer (I live in Europe) ? - Where can you buy the software in New York, and can you ask for the promotion in a retail store too? Thanks, EDIT: Seems B&H has the software WITH promotion. Don't know if the license works here. __________________ http://productionsofthe3rdkind.com http://pr3k.com Last edited by Mathieu Ghekiere; July 12th, 2011 at 05:30 AM.

July 12th, 2011, 07:39 AM	#34
Brett Sherman Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mount Rainier, MD Posts: 428	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers It's a good deal, just to get Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Encore. However, Adobe charges so much for upgrades and upgrades so frequently that they could practically give away the suite the first time hoping that you'll upgrade at some point.

July 12th, 2011, 09:50 AM	#35
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers The current upgrade price for PPro is only $179 and I did the math in my recent article to learn that upgrades for the whole Production Premium suite have been running under $35/month over time. Everyone has their own threshold for "expensive" but IMO if you're a professional, that's not a big investment for the soft-tools with which you do your job. This is Adobe's core business; software isn't a loss-leader for more expensive hardware or a la carte pricing for core NLE functionalities, as is said to be the case for some other NLE vendors. So again, just my opinion, but I think Adobe's Creative Suites are good bang for buck. More buck, more bang. Good value. As far as the overseas costs, this keeps being brought up and obviously nobody here on the forum knows. It is what it is. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

July 12th, 2011, 12:38 PM	#37
Jon Braeley Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 528	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers I started with Adobe Photoshop version one ... in 1991. And got just about every upgrade since but I stopped at CS3... way too many upgrades that were simply designed as extra revenue and offered little in return - and this was Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamwaver... all of them. And and yes most cost $199 or $299 ... but with 8 or 9 programs this adds up each year. I got off the treadmill four years ago. So I am weary of Adobe. I will hold out a while.

July 12th, 2011, 01:24 PM	#38
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers Jon, people make this kind of comment frequently and it makes no sense to me. Unless the company fails or they End-of-Life a product, all software companies put out new versions of their software...I'm glad that the competitive marketplace drives innovation because I wouldn't want to still be using 1994's Adobe Premiere (not Pro) on Win 3.11, eh? Nobody makes a person upgrade each time; they choose to do so. One can still use CS3 if it does the job and that costs nothing additional. If a person wants the new features of the latest version, they can decide if it is worth the asking price and if so, they'll buy. Marcus, you can skip versions if you'd like (this is all discussed in the very brief article I linked to in my previous post). It does save a little money, but not that much really. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

July 12th, 2011, 03:18 PM	#39
Andy Solaini Major Player Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 223	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers How does this offer work? I mean surely it's not just a case of putting in the promo code? I can't find anything on the website that actually says what they require you to do with your old software. Or for that matter how do you prove you even have the old software they list? Andy S

July 12th, 2011, 06:49 PM	#45
Bill Pryor Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 4,449	Re: Adobe offers 50% off CS5.5 to Final Cut Pro customers I bought mine from the Adobe site. They make it really easy. You can keep your FCP. Same with the Avid discounted upgrade. Both companies figure if you get it you'll be a long time customer. On Sunday i spent a couple of hours watching some training clips, then Monday at the office I opened PP up for the first time and in about 10 minutes was editing and checking out the color grading. The transition is going to be a lot easier and quicker than it was when I went from Avid to FCP 5 years ago. One of the first things I said after watching some training videos was, "Wow...they sure have leapfrogged over FCP!" The title tool is amazing--a real title tool, just like Avid. So far I like the basic color correction better too, and a number of other things. In the 5 years I've used FCP, it hasn't really developed. The upgrades were tiny and only seemed to make it more stable. After just a very short introduction to PP, I'm now glad Apple did what they did. If they hadn't, I probably would never have looked at PP. I'm looking forward to migrating all my FCP programs over as soon as I can. I'm already convinced that FCP 7 has been way behind the curve and that Media Composer and now PP5.5 are better. One big thing if you shoot with a 5DII or other DSLR...no more transcoding to ProRes. In the past year and a half I've added over 3 TB of footage over and above the H.264 original because of transcoding. Not needing to transcode does bring up a backup consideration. What I had been doing is loading my original H.264 into one drive, then transcoding to another. So, the ProRes lives in other drives, while the original is in separate drives. If an H.264 drive fails, I've got the ProRes, and vice versa. What I started doing with new footage yesterday is loading it as I usually do, but then burning Blu-ray discs for backup. The Blu-rays will be stored like my old tapes. My Blu-ray burner came from Videoguys and was cheaper than a 2 TB hard drive. Also, the Blu-rays burn a lot faster than the transcoding through MPEG Streamclip. According to Shane Hurlbut, Premiere Pro handles Canon DSLR footage better than the other systems. When I first looked at a clip in the timeline, it did look better than the same clip in FCP that had been transcoded to ProRes. Not a huge difference and nothing to get excited about, but there was a definite different look. The color seemed to pop more. Again, very subtle and I doubt I would notice the difference in a finished film, but if you're pixelpeeping (measurebating), it's something to look at.