From the few reviews I read I was going to wait until the next upgrade but then I saw some of the new features and was sold. Lots of flexibility with shadow options. I haven't had PSE 5 very long but I am really pleased. There are some things I discovered you can do by accident in PSE 5 that also are benefits but haven't seen if that same thing will work in PSE 4. Haven't had a chance to explore much but I have no regrets at all so far.