Originally posted by cats_five Elements drove me nuts after using PaintShopPro and I found it didn't have a channel mixer, which is how I usually convert to B&W. PSP is cheaper and full-featured, but a bit easier to use than Photoshop. The weakest area is colour-managed workflow which can be done but is tricker than with Elements / Photoshop / Lightroom.
I used Paint Shop Pro X2 before I went dSLR and got a great deal on a package with CS5 Extended + LR3 + Painter 11.
One caution, PSP X2 has a good rep and solid reviews. Part of why I did not go with it to X3 were the incredible # of negative reviews from long-time PSP users about "ruining" the software with the X3 package. I do think PSP X2 is far easier to use than CS5 and it costs around $30 for the full retail version