Imaging software questions

I currently am using the following:

Photoshop 7.0 acedemic version(non-registered)
Nikonview 6.1

shooting JPEG Fine and wanting to start shooting RAW with my D100

My questions are:
Since I cannot upgrade to CS2 from 7.0 should I
a) Purchase CS2 for $$$ and use ACR to convert Raw files
b) Purchase Nikon Capture 4.0 to convert before PS 7
c) Wait until Capture NX is released then use PS 7
d) none of the above - There is a better combination

You can also get the free version of RawShooter and continue to use PS7.
CS and CS2 add more advanced 16-bit operations though which may be a significant enough reason to upgrade.

Guy

You can upgrade to CS2 from 7. I upgraded fro Photoshop 4. I had to get Adobe to give me the code to unlock from 4 but they did it. I couldn't believe they let me but I call Adobe before I purchased the upgrade. You might want to give them a call. I tried RawShooter but was frustrated with its limitations.

Choose option d) none of the above.

You can do the upgrade from PS7 to CS2. I installed the upgrade from PS6 to CS2 with no problems. The upgrade to CS2 is worth every penny. You won't need spend the dollars on Nikon Capture. ACR 3.3, which comes with CS2, supports every current Nikon digital camera. Technically, I think a previous version of ACR is distributed with CS2 and you download 3.3 from Adobe for free.

I'm intrigued by this discussion, because I'm moving to all digital with a D200. Has anybody used both Nikon Capture and ACR and does one do a better conversion or do they do essentially the same quality conversion?

I had academic version of Photoshop 7, and was told that I could not upgrade from 7 to CS2 or CS3. So I bought CS2.

Regards
Paula Dittrick
Houston

Mark - Here's another thread here that talks about what the best RAW converter might be. I think if you search here, google, and other forums you can find a lot of info and opinions.