Elements V3 or V4

[paulanne1]

I have photoshop elements V2,got it with my 20D.Everyone says V3 is a lot better then V2,and I was going to get V3 becauce I can get it at a pretty good price.
but I was wondering if I should get V4, would it be better for me to put the xtra money to get the newer Version.
I can get V3 for about $40.00,V4 would be about $70.00
Thanks for any help you can give

[Mr. Pickles]

Interesting predicament. Given that v3 had some good editing enhancements, I'd certainly recoomend you jump up to that at least. Adobe wrote this about v4:

Enhance your photos with powerful new tools that help you adjust specific areas of a photo in less time and even remove red eye automatically as you download. Create fun composites with new features that let you make more precise selections and smooth out rough edges. Show off your creativity in more entertaining ways, including enhanced slide shows with superior pan and zoom effects, voice narration, and multiple music tracks. To edit, organize, and show your photos in new, creative ways, upgrade today to Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4.0 software.

To me, they are pushin the creative side of pictures. Fun composites, Slide shows, pan and zooms, voice and music tracks and such, is kind of gimmicky to me. If you want to fix your images for printing and such, then you want that, not some slideshow creator.

I'd jump to v3, and get the Photo Album management, RAW support, Histogram, quick fix, spot healing brush, multiple image matched scrolling and zooming, filter gallery, noise reduction, etc. Many Image improvements in v3 that you need to see, use, learn, and perfect. Once you get those, the rest is easy. having a slideshow of images that are good, makes for a good slideshow. Making good images better, is the key. You can make better images with the camera, and the software. Once you get both working together, you're there.