Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Adobe Elements
Comment: having had a previous version of Adobe elements I was expecting upgrades and new features and they did not disappoint. The group picture feature is great especailly when you have fidigety kids to take pictures of. While i am still learning the features I an very pleased so far.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Most of the power at a fraction of the price
Comment: The Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4 bundle is one of the best values for the home photo/video editor. I use the full version of Photoshop and a fairly pricey video editing (Sony Vegas) package at our business, but needed a powerful yet inexpensive (a relative term, I know) package to use at home. Here are my observations on each package:
Photoshop Elements 6:
At first glance I was disappointed and thought I had made a big mistake as the default interface is fairly simplistic (which is a GOOD thing for most users). Being used to the some of the more advance features (such as "Curves") and the ability to load in templates, the one click tools (while great for the casual user) were a little underwhelming. Not to fear though, the more powerful tools are still available by getting into a different editing mode, which I would have found faster if I had read the somewhat skimpy manual. All in all, it is nice to be able to "one click fix" all of my family photos, and still have the ability to get more powerful tools for the work I bring home with me. This is a fantastic value for the money!
Premiere Elements 4:
Since most of my editing is done on higher dollar packages at work, I was just looking for a home software package to quickly assemble clips, make photo slide shows, and to convert clips for upload to YouTube. This package surprised me with it's drag and drop ease of use. It is fantastic for the home user and does exactly what it says it is going to do. One note about the YouTube integration, it is nothing short of fantastic! I had a clip that was just too big to upload and my expensive work software just was too hard to get the file size and quality they require. Using Premiere Elements, I was able to drop in the large clip, indicate it was for YouTube, and the software did the rest...Including logging in and uploading it to my account right from inside the program. No muss, no fuss, just as advertised!
All in all, I think this is one of the best home user packages available. Simple enough for the basic user with access to the more powerful tools if needed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Problem with PhotoShop Premiere Elements 4 .....
Comment: PhotoShop Elements 6 is outstanding, one should have these tools available in every computer, every household - no doubt. But I had a problem with Premiere Elements 4 - the video part of it - I could not
load them into my computer, because of its Minimum Requirements. Please read through them first and see, if your processor is actually qualified enough to run the program. The otherwise better choice might be, to just buy PhotoShop Elements 6, without getting Premiere Elements 4.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best bang for your buck
Comment: I am coming from Adobe Photoshop Elements (PE) version 4.0 and Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and this review reflects that. Most of this review will be for PE 6.0 since I have spent most my time editing photos. I would not call myself a power user, but perhaps I am approaching an advanced user. As such, I hope this is useful for those with similar experience. There is no getting around that PE has a tremendous amount of power for the cost of the program.
In a nutshell:
An upgrade from PE 4.0 is highly recommended.
From my understanding of PE 5.0, there are not enough new photo editing features to warrant an upgrade.
Many of the small nuances in PE 4.0 have been smoothed out and there are a number of added features. Some of the more important features for photo editing include a better RAW conversion routine and a CORRECT CAMERA DISTORTION routine (although a lighter version than in Photoshop CS). These by themselves probably make version 6.0 a worthwhile upgrade from version 4.0. I also found the new ADJUST SHARPNESS tool easy to use with minimal edge highlights, although I have been using a third party sharpener that seems comparable. The new curves routine is really not very useful since it is not in an adjustment layer. This was disappointing and you would be better off downloading a third party curves plug-in of which there are several - both free and fee types. You would then have the full benefit of curves outside of an adjustment layer. However, I think all these tools were available in version 5.0. Also, and apparently beginning with version 5.0, Adobe has made it more difficult to install "Hidden Power" tools (authored by Richard Lynch - do a search). I use some of these tools extensively and probably would not upgrade PE if I were not able to install them. However, I was successful in installing them in version 6.0 using methods similar to version 5.0.
Version 6.0 has a darker gray background. I have mixed feelings about this. At first, I found my pictures to "pop" and easier to view. However, after using it for some time, I don't know that it really offers much benefit. In fact, it can make your pictures appear brighter than they really are. Thus, it is even more critical to use the histogram (Personally, I thought it beneficial to use the middle gray that cameras expose for resulting in a good visual for a photo that is supposed to be a little darker or a little lighter. The background in the photo editor of version 4.0 was middle gray.). The second thing I don't care for is the coloration of the tools. They are very distracting. If Adobe darkened the background to be less distracting, why would they color the tools? Also, the various versions of a tool are no longer represented in the tool bar. For example, in version 4.0, when the BURN tool was clicked on, both the BURN and DODGE appeared in the toolbar. Now you have to right click on the tool to get the option (I guess power users would just use ALT-CLICK ;) ). Finally, it is clear that Adobe has spent some effort in trying to make the program run faster. I think in some respects they have succeeded. Unfortunately, they continue to offset the speed by bulking the program up with gimmicks. I guess they have done their marketing research and that is what people are asking for. I don't care for them but can understand that Adobe wants to reach a wider audience. Beginners will appreciate the "Guided Edit" to help them learn editing steps and there is a more extensive set of photo sharing tools.
As far as Premiere Elements goes, the same dark background is used which sometimes makes the text difficult to read. From the little I have used it so far, the program seems more stable than version 2.0. One issue that you might come up against, as I have, is that not all the pre-made frames from version 2.0 were included in the new version. When I loaded some of my previously made movies, an error box came up asking where the frames were. Finally, Adobe replaced many of the markers such as the "In Point" and "Out Point". I preferred the older markers as they mimicked professional equipment that I have seen. Anyway, they will take some time getting used to.
In spite of these minor nuances, the package easily gets a 5 star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Elements 6 & Premiere Elements 4 Bundle
Comment: Please be aware that Premiere Elements 4 will NOT run on any computer processor that does not support the SSE2 Instruction set. The following comes from an Adobe Tech Note: Important: The following CPUs do not have SSE2 support and will not work with Adobe Premiere Elements 3.x: Intel Pentium III, AMD Athlon, AMD Athlon XP, or AMD Athlon XP-M.
Elements 6 does NOT have this limitation. The bundling of the two products would cause one to assume that the requirements for each program was identical.
Elements is a super program. The cost to upgrade from Elements 5 to 6 is questionable. However an upgrade from any other version of Elements is worth the cost. I cannot comment on Premiere since it would not run on my HP computer.
Amazon refunded my money. Adobe ignored my protest that the limitation should appear in bold letters in the advertising literature.
Hurray for Amazon. Shame on Adobe!
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