Is anybody using PSP7 and Photoshop Elements and have enough familiarity to show any advantages one over the other in photo restoration? I am conisdering using Elements because Photoshop itself is better, but dont know how much better Elements would be for this. Any ideas?

There is plenty of functionality in Paint Shop Pro that is not in Elements. Unfortunately I have lost the message that told what they are, but I believe Curves is one of the features missing. It was plenty enough to make me thankful for Paint Shop Pro.

Paint Shop Pro is a very robust program for the money. I have not seen any convincing evidence, even from pros, that Photoshop is better for anything.

Here's a link... back to a discussion here on retouchpro:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1129

The best app for any purpose is the one you feel the most comfortable with. Both of these offer free time-limited trial versions. Play with them both, and let us know what your decision is (and why).