Wacom Tablets

I'm looking to purchase a Wacom Bamboo tablet, but I have a few questions to ask first.

Do a few extra inches of drawing space make a lot of difference? The Bamboo site has the specs for the small and medium tablets -- is it worth the extra money for the medium one?

Also, they have another Bamboo tablet which only comes in the small size, and without a wireless mouse. Would I be missing anything without the included mouse?

Thanks!

I have a small Wacom tablet, and even though it may seem titchy, its very responsive and accurate.

I love it when photoshopping, as it help put me in the arty mood... And by god, I need to be in the mood for drawing, I need all the motivation possible! :D

Dabz

The size of the tablet is very much user preferential.

I bought a large tablet (A4 size, not a Wacom) and found it very difficult to use because of the amount of hand movement needed to move the pen.

I now use a small A6 tablet because you can move much around quicker with small movements of the pen - if I need to do detail work, I simply zoom in.

Please note: most people who buy graphics tablets end up putting them at the back of the cupboard about 4 weeks after purchase.

That's exactly what I did. Reason being I just didn't click with it immediately.

I started using it again after about 2 or 3 years (about 6 months ago) and it definitely has advantages over drawing with a mouse, although you have to put the practice in.

I got a watcom Volito2 A5, no moans here, works on both windows/ubuntu and its accurate and comfortable to use.

Size primarily depends on your drawing style imo.

I draw quick and use my whole arm to produce clean fluid strokes, so I needed a fair-sized tablet, as to which I picked up a 12x9" Intuos2 way-back-when.

Unless they improved the mouse thing a crapload since my Intuos2, I wouldn't even give a second thought about it as it doesn't compare at all to the real thing.

It also depends on your purpose for purchasing. Is it a mouse replacement, or a tool to enhance workflow in your applications?

It's certainly not a mouse replacement -- more just a fun tool to play around with. Amazon is selling the smaller(5.8" x 3.7"), mouse-less version for about $50, which is a hard price to beat.

I have a Wacom A5, love it, although I don't get to use it as often as I'd like. Amazing with Corel Painter.

I'm glad Torrente started this thread as I've been thinking about getting a graphics tablet myself.

As I don't have any artistic ability I'm thinking maybe a tablet would help, or have I got that backwards?

Would you guys recommend a graphics tablet to someone in my position or are they really only for people with actual drawing ability?

It would probably be a waste of money unless you think you can do better with it. If your just going to buy it to play around with it will end up laying around unused.

I use mine daily. I wouldn't know what to do without having it around, there's so many different things it's handy for beyond simply painting.

Anyway, already told Torrente this crap over AIM, so no need to repeat the other stuff.

A few of my friends use them to give their RSI a rest.

I don't think they are a great mouse replacement for everyday tasks, but make a HUGE difference in photoshop and painter.

I struggled with mine till I got a keyboard tray for my keyboard and mouse and can place my largish tablet on the table above. Not its easy to use whichever is best for the task, and the mouse and tablet don't have to fight for position on the desk :)

I've had the small graphire wacom and never liked it. But I now have an intuos3 6x11 and it's definitely worth the money. It's not too big and it's not too small. It's just the right size to sit back in your chair and use it with it on your lap.

I have the smaller bamboo and I must say I love it. It would be nice to have one of the larger tablets, but the they're just to expensive.

To start with, the tablet feels quite strange as small area represents your whole screen size, but you get used to it after a while. I still use the mouse alot as dragging/resizing windows with the pen is a bit tricky.

If you're a professional, or even a keen artist, it may be worth getting the medium size. I spend about an hour each night painting in scanned images and find the small tablet size just fine.

I was speaking to an artist friend of mine the other day on this. He still draws line art on paper, then scans it and colors it on PC, he says he doesn't have the control he wants using a tablet.

I use mine much more now that I have cleared off my desk and moved a few things around, allowing me to keep it next to my computer at all times. A quick change of USB lead is fine - when I had to dig out the tablet from the cupboard and stow the mouse away, it was all too easy not to bother for quick tasks.

CGV wrote:


A tablet is no replacement for artistic talent or ability, I'm afraid. Having said that, what most people call "a lack of artistic ability" is often the lack of both technical knowledge and experience - both of which can be gained with a lot of time and effort. What you should do is practice with pencil and paper - learn the fundamentals - before splashing out on fancy hardware that might prove useless to you.

I baught a bamboo A6 some month ago an its really great for photoshop touchups and texture making. I wanted to buy an intuos3 tablet some years now but they were just too expensive but it seems the bamboo ones are good enough for my needs

Same here. Initial line drawing gets done in pencil or pen, scanned, and then traced over with the tablet and colored. I know people that do use the tablet exclusively on a project, but I know that *I* certainly don't have the extremely fine control of a pen/pencil and paper with the tablet.

I still use a 14 year old 8" x 10" wacom tablet for all my artwork. Has a serial port plug with piggyback 9v DV socket and brick power supply lol.

Someday I'll have to upgrade, but this thing has proven indestructable so far. Even with only 256 levels of pressure and tilt its still awesome. If your on a budget you can pick them up on Ebay for $10 - $50 depending on size etc.

Wacom Digitizer II currently $0.99 on ebay.

Sorry about the blatant plug, but I wrote a little (unfortunately loopy / imperfect) review on the Bamboo tablet...
Really not a review, since I really like it and thus am probably biased :P

http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-review-of-wacom-bamboo-small.html

In short, I think the Bamboo is a nice tablet to get started with the idea -- even the small one. There is an added benefit of it, unlike most cheap / small tablets, also being really well designed with portability in mind, and not really sacrificing too much compared to the others. If you like the idea and get a huge tablet some day, you may still appreciate the Bamboo as a nice way to have something to use on the go.

Get the medium bamboo, theyre already quite small since theyre the low end.

I have a WACOM tablet
Model: CTE-430 (sapphire)

if anybody cares. I am very happy with it, and have used it in numerous occasions

I'm considering a medium one, although the ~$120 price difference between the Bamboo small and the Bamboo Fun medium is hard to justify.