Wacom Advice Sought

Hi,

Just getting to grips with X4 and, despite the steep learning curve, am loving it. However, I find myself wondering about a tablet. I had the use of an A3 Intuos 3 last year and liked the feel but not the size.

Much as I'd like one, the Intuos 4 range is out of my current budget. Any thoughts / comments / warnings on the Bamboo Fun Medium with X4, please?

Cheers,
Mark

biggreenfurrythings:

Any thoughts / comments / warnings on the Bamboo Fun Medium with X4, please?

I have a Bamboo only, I'd suggest that. With Bamboo Fun, you pay for a mouse which you don't need if you have mouse already.

Mine is 6X8 I believe and it works perfectly for my large moniter. I also have a 2X4 I use wiht my laptop and it is perfect as well. many seems to think bigger is always better yet in thi instance I would beg to difer. You can go too big and it just hinders you

I use a Graphire4 6x8 [usb], the predecessor of the Bamboo Fun. I recommend either. The graphire4[usb] has been discontinued, however, you can probably still find one.

Richard Reilly:

many seems to think bigger is always better yet in thi instance I would beg to difer. You can go too big and it just hinders you

I totally agree - in fact I only use a small portion of my Bamboo!

I tweak the mapping function, so the the red area shown covers my 4:3 monitor.

my side of right hand stays locked down in yellow area:

I also covered surface with black signmaker vinyl for less resistance, like Graphires which were very smooth.

 

Your real world experiences are just what I needed. Thank you all for your responses. After reading them I set up an old Serif tablet I have but used only once. Turns out it's a rebadged Wacom Volito 2.

I installed the latest Vista 64 drivers and, following Richard's advice, adjusted the settings to Force Proportions to use only the upper part of the pad across my dual screens.

The 'feel' is subjectively better than the A3 tablet I used for a while. The Volito has only half the sensitivity of the Intuos 3's and a quarter that of the Intuos 4's but it's plenty accurate enough for my needs. No doubt it will take some getting used to but I've just touched up a couple of images in Photo-Paint with little problem. The control over brush strokes in CorelDraw is fine in both senses of the word.

The real icing on the cake was how easy Corel was to configure for the tablet.

I can't brelieve I had the solution in my cupboard all along. Don't I feel stupid

Thanks again.
Mark

biggreenfurrythings:

I installed the latest Vista 64 drivers and, following Richard's advice, adjusted the settings to Force Proportions to use only the upper part of the pad across my dual screens.

It was actually Jeff but thanks. lol Glad you are squared away

 

I have two different sizes of Wacom Intuos3.
The one I use on a daily basis is Wacom Intuos3 A6 Wide

I can highly recomend it, can still be bought at Wacom,com own website, store.

But now the new and wonderful New Wacom Intuos4 came out.
Size: Small, Medium, Large, Xtra Large and another one I belive.
I wrote about the release of the new ones in March, when I was invited to participate, and got to try it out, I just love it.
On my website, the blog page I wrote: Wacom Intuos4 - an illustrators wet dream

Just the feel when you put your hand on the actual drawing area surface is great, and the resolution, and levels for this one is impressive.
And if you turn around the whole wacom intuos4 tablet 180 degrees, and just switch the USB cable to the other side, then its instantly perfect for a left hand person, and turn and switch back and its perfect for a Right hand person. Aint that great :-)

Apologies and thanks to Jeff.

Stefan: thanks for your blog link. It's the only time I've read a review of Wacom tablets that mentions the texture of the drawing surface. Unfortunately the price difference between the Intuos 4 (or 3) and the Bamboo is way too big for me to justify purchasing the former.

If the comments in this thread have convinced me of anything it's that an A6 sized tablet is perfectly OK.

After an entire day 'mouseless' with the old Volito I find I have no aching in my 'mouse button' fingers. Nice.

You could always look in eBay or the like for a used tablet. I have been using a couple of Intuos 2's for about seven years now and -give or take some surface scratches- they are still working like brand-new.

Mark,

A couple of things to remember if you do decide to get a new tablet.

Your health! As you've already noticed, pain has started to go away in your
fingers. It will probably also help to reduce any carpal tunnel effects.

Wacom tablets have a lifetime warranty. When I was using mice, I'd have to
buy a new one once a year because it would wear out. I'm still using the
Wacom tablet I bought ten years ago and I'm just now thinking it is time to
upgrade simply to take advantage of newer features. Plus my current tablet
is a serial model so it is more of a hassle than the newer USB versions.

I have a Wacom Intuos3 4 x 5-Inch in mint condition with mouse, pen, pen tips, and pen holder I can let go for a good price if anyone is interested. I have the software for it to but you might want to download the latest drivers.

 

The little Volito 2 is doing everything I need right now. Currently my budget's directed towards  photographic hardware but maybe just after Christmas I'll look around and see what tablet bargains are about.

biggreenfurrythings:

Stefan: thanks for your blog link. It's the only time I've read a review of Wacom tablets that mentions the texture of the drawing surface.

Well both my self and John Wallin Liberto (seen on photo together with me, and linked to in my blog post) who also attended and participated, sometimes put a paper on the wacom intuos3 tablet to get the feel of "real" hand friction movements. 

Bamboo is perfectly okey for most people, if you are heading for that one.

Using the Volito is a trip down memory lane. It has a rough, scratchy surface which reminds me of long rolls of cheap lining paper my Mum used to buy for me to scribble on when I was a kid. Hopefully I'm drawing a bit better these days than I did then.