I'm thinking of upgrading to CS4. Anyone have any opinions or suggestions? Is it worth it, or should I just stick with CS3? Any bugs anyone know about or any real advantages to the upgrade? All responses appreciated!

I think cs4 's great.

See Dekepod for some advantages:
http://www.deke.com/content/photoshop-cs4-buy-or-die

i've had all 4 CS versions, but untill i started forcing myself to use cs4 i was happy with PS7, that's way above my level of chopping skillz

I agree most of the new stuf is like candy. sweet candy though not necessary. For chopping one can get away with ps7. But now I'm used to cs4 I wouldn't like to go back.
@CartoonContracter, you can install a cs4 demo besides the existing cs3 installation to find out if it's tou your liking.

Well I'm used to CS3 and, like you, wouldn't go back to PS7. And cool! Great idea for the demo! Didn't know about that! Thanks!

The new stuff in CS4 is best when I do productphotography and similar stuff. Nothing new and important when it comes to creativity. Just a few a few new ways of working. I would wait for the next realease.

Ok, Thanks Pakimo!

I like all the changes in CS4, most of them are very subtle.
My favorites
1. resize brush on the fly ALT/right click/and move mouse or pen to resize
2. Clonestamp carries the piece that you copied ALT/click so you can see if it is where you want to put it. In CS3 it does this on vanishing point.
3. The tabbed layout.
4. You can feather and change transparency of mask with a slider.
5. the placement of layer adjustments is easier to use.
6. Content aware scaling "allows you to scale an image but protect certain parts you designate"
7. Canvas rotation
8. A Lot of 3d stuff if you want it. I have been trying to play around with it. The cool thing is now you apply texture and paint on 3d object.
9. A lot more stable program, does not freeze up as much, opens and responds faster.

You have to think CS4 was built off of lessons learned and feedback.
Yes of course they are going to leave a few things jacked so they can charge you for CS5 later.
Helpful tip you get CS4 and this is true with all versions after Ver7.

When they added the bridge to the whole adobe thing it took away the ability to view thumbnail I guess to force you to use bridge.
What I do is install version 7 then install CS4. Version 7 thumbnail viewer is still in the registry so now know matter what version you have you are able to view PSD thumbnail.
Also by installing Version 7 you get image ready that is a lot more gif friendly

Thanks Jerry! And congrats on 2nd place H2H!

still using CS2 here dont see the need for anything else

CS4 needs a lot of Ram. I have 4 Gb and sometimes there is a long lag between the time I paint a stroke, and the time it appears on the screen. If you Google CS4 for reviews, I think that you will find that many people have had issues with lag time...Also Adobe does not support the 64 bit version, although they include it in the CS4 package. I don't have CS4 extended, so I am not commenting on my experience with that program..

If you don't have a dual-core 2+ghz processor...stay with CS3.

Thanks Patre and dewdew. I have an old 2000 12" mac lap top that I chop on. It only has 2 gb ram and I have a lag problem now! I don't need additional lag for sure.

call me insecure, i just saved all my cs4 masters colection to one file for saving to an external hard drive 5.5 GB

I LOVE CS4 - see reasons above. I'm totally glad I spent the $$ on the upgrade. But I tend to really get into each and every little bit of this app.

[But it really does help if you have a dual core and a good video card with some solid RAM for CS4 PS.]

As with many things, though, it depends what you are doing. PS7 can do a lot of things, but the things that it doesn't do, it doesn't do very good at all. And the things that CS4 does well, it does very well indeed.

It isn't wanting what you don't have, but needing what they sell you... or something like that! :\