Help

I'm looking for help from fellow blippers tonight.

I thought I'd try shooting in RAW (+jpeg), as recommended in loads of blogs, magazines, books, etc. The problem is what to do with the files once I've got them onto my computer.

I've updated my version of Photoshop Elements 8, with the latest Camera Raw plug-in - the newest supported by PSE8 is v6.2. But, support for my camera isn't introduced until v6.4.1.

So three questions...

- upgrade, and if so, do I go for PSE12 or try Lightroom? Or,
- is there a cheap/free alternative to use for editing RAW files? Or,
- have I missed something obvious?