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Valid through the end of the month.

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[snipenekkid]

@snipenekkid... Have you any advice on a strategy for maneuvering into a position where one might, at some point, get a shot at a Nik suite freebie, or the next best thing, starting from this late date? I do own a Google Nexus 7-2013... it did come with apps... would that count? Ha, ha, probably not... though big, bad Google ought, perhaps, to be playing Santa once in awhile; even ol' Scrooge finally did! ...Sigh: timing can mean everything here in the cheapskates' club.

Meanwhile, there's some small tonnage of stuff that needs to get out of here to fleabay, etc. -- not just a few lenses -- so Remask ought to help expedite that process for me, with results that might encourage a few additional bids.

@Kayaker-J

try what "mee" suggested. I think Google only bought the company for the tech to movie it into Picasa so they don't care much if it generates much revenue. We'll see when a new version is, if ever, released. If they give it away to existing users then they don't care but if the ding us $49, oh well, still worth it. And so are the tools from Topaz. I think owning several is great but you have to spend time with each to figure out if you really need something more.

Good luck...

[Kayaker-J]

Thanks, guys. My problem is that after a good run in the film era, I went Rip Van Winkle on the whole early '90's AF to digicam time frame until purchasing an Olympus Pen, and then my K3. Collecting lenses, accessories, and other supplementary pieces -- and lately, photo processing software -- has been fun, but I missed the boat on everything prior to last November's Cyber Monday deal on Light room 5 (from New Egg).

I was wondering about a secondary market for these software licenses, where I might perhaps pick up the requisite "seed" Nik bit... but I really know nothing about how that might work. Or how one might acquire a copy/license to a pre- Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, perhaps. How do I get up to speed with that; and more fundamentally, is this a sensible plan?

[mee]

If you don't already own one of the legacy Nik plugins then I don't think you'll find a way to upgrade..

Perhaps your next option might be using the 15% coupon HDRsoftware15 to drop the price of the suite to 126 USD and change...

I have yet to see Google offer a sale price of the Suite since they took ownership. I'm not sure if they ever will..

But perhaps you will like some of the topaz effects better? I'd trial some of them and some of the Nik effects and see which you prefer.

As far as Lightroom goes, yes they give the best price generally on Black Friday which is coming up in a few months.. Adobe is kind of strange about second hand software -- if the software is registered to an Adobe account already, there will be a form that needs to be filled out by both the buyer and the seller of the software. Adobe only permits 3 transfers FOR LIFE so you have to be careful with what you transfer.

Be careful if buying Photoshop or Lightroom on ebay or the like.. lots of pirated copies with pirated serials about..

Another option is, if you are in the market for a new lens, to make use of one of the bundle prices that B&H has on adobe software with them..

A more risky option is to wait until LR6 is announced and buy LR5 on blowout somewhere within a 30 day window of the actual release date of LR6. TYPICALLY (but not in stone) Adobe will upgrade your license to the latest version for no extra charge. But there is no promise they will either..

[Kayaker-J]

A very fine set of solid advice, I think, mee. Thanks so much for your help!