Graphics tablets

Hey, my school got these new wacom graphics tablets. I love them. I can sketch like its on paper, and what really blew me away was the pen's eraser side. These are awsome for me as I'm alot better at physical art then on the computer w/ a mouse.

Do you use/like them?

Also, besides these wacom tablets, what are some good ones you can reccomend? I'm looking for pricing aswell, preferably under 150$.

I just stick with Wacom. Their budget-priced models, the Bamboo, are adequate enough for most people in terms of size and features if you want a low-case solution to play around with.

For me, my Intuos2 (12x9" drawing field) is still alive and working well years down the road, so they're built pretty damn well. I use mine primarily for doodling, as well as cleaning-up/colouring artwork. I still prefer to draw with an actual pencil and paper though.

I can only recommend the Wacom ones. Anything else usualy has problems. Might be better off checking ebay for one at a reasonable price.

I've had mine since 1995, unfortunately even though I got it to work in Vista with a reg hack to get the serial port to recognise it and it works in some apps, adobe don't seem to access the tablet in the same way so no pressure.

Anyway, If you need to spend $150 or less I'd get a used Intuos of some kind or other. So long as it's USB it will work with Vista properly. I like 6x8 inch tablets personaly not too cramped like the smaller tablets.

I'd really like a cintiq with the built in LCD so your not still doing the weird offset hand eye coordination thing. Find tablets great for colouring and touchup, but not so good for drawing accurately.

I have an el-cheapo one I got from Argos a couple of years ago for something like £30. Its A6 (1/4 of A4) and pretty good for the price. Nothing I can really say that's bad about it.

i have a wacom intuos3 a5 that i hardly touch.

Me too! Love it - the one or two times a year I use it...

I think I'm going to get one of these; http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8601854&st=wacom&lp=7&type=product&cp=1&id=1192232279956

It looks like the best deal for your money (includes photoshop elements 5, and coral painter's essentials, both 40+$ programs.)

I have a wacom a5 tablet cant remember the model as i got it for £200 ish about 3 years ago. When i got it i found it very odd to use so stuck it on a shelf, but ive been colouring for comics resently and ive forced myself to get used to it, its worth the effort the results i get now are much more organic and is much quicker. but yes for support and dpi i would stick to wacom.

I've been using Wacom tablets for years. Wacom is definately the way to go.

A few things though. When drawing work that needs to be exact, like clear black and white line drawing, I find it works best to have a Wacom that is close to the size of the screen. I've used an Intuos A5 size with a 12" iBook with quite good success. When painting it seems to matter less, I guess cause it's more loose.

That said I bought a TabletPC last year, with Wacom technology. And although the Wacom in it is similar to the ones in the Wacom ArtPad II (256 levels of pressure and no tilt), I've found it great to work with. It's even more like drawing on paper than with a normal tablet. The main difference is accuracy. Things like cross hatching and drawing paralell lines as well as tracing drawings is much more accurate. I use Undo much less than I would with a Tablet. Of course, it comes at a cost. From my experience with the tablet I might consider getting the big Wacom screen, if I happen to have a couple of thousand borrowing a hole in my pocket one day. :P

hehe, thats what I have, an old serial art pad II with serial port. Can pick them up for under $20 on ebay. Not sure if the Bamboo does tilt but it probably doesn't matter, tilts not very usefull with most tools.

Bamboo does not do tilt or eraser pressure, but it is a nice device. Smallish, so I recommend it for laptops (which is what I use it with). Two reasons for that:
-REALLY easy to pack it into a bag; it's thin, sensibly shaped and has a detachable USB cable.
-The small active area means it works best with a small screen, or at least a small area of the screen.

The bluetooth Graphire is pretty nice to that end, too :)

I have had no moans about my wacom volitoII