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Geek Culture / Advice on Wacom tablets

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Kezzla
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Location: Where beer does flow and men chunder
Posted: 6th Dec 2011 13:05
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Hi all,
I'm considering buying a Wacom tablet (intuos4 large)

just looking at the products and their features and prices and they look great.

I've used them before(about 10 years ago) and I loved them.

however, these days I'm a bit behind the times with new technology and I'm not up to speed with the whole touchscreen market having never really used a touchscreen device before.

should i wait out a little in the hope of the general market tablets becoming cheap and awesome painting tools?

are the current (non Wacom) tablet/touchscreen devices as good as a Wacom tablet? eg, sensitivity, pen peripheral, pen stroke dynamics etc.

Has anyone used both Wacom and touchscreen devices that can share any wisdom?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank-you.

Sometimes I like to use words out of contents
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zenassem
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Location: Long Island, NY
Posted: 6th Dec 2011 13:35 Edited at: 6th Dec 2011 13:48
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I have used both (Wacom and Laptop w/Touchscreen-(converts to tablet)...

I'll edit in the model#'s and links

[Size does Matter!!!]
I need to look at the model you are interested in. "Large" at least sounds good. My first Wacom had way to small of a work area, and I truly regret purchasing it. It just made everything extra difficult.

[Wacom/Windows: Drivers and concerns]
I'll have to read some reviews of current products, and I'm assuming Windows 7 (If not... please post your OS). In the past I have been dissapointed with Wacom's lack of either fully testing their drivers, and/or not providing updates in a reasonable time-frame. I had several issues with regard to buttons and other User-Interface devices not functioning properly; (intermittent, not at all, too sensitive without enough functional [config settings/range settings] via Wacoms software). I've looked at some recent Wacom tablets and while "some" of the features (buttons, sliders, keys, analog stick etc...) look helpful,, I am not confident (given my past experience) that they work out of the box; AND have a functional amount of adjustment setting to suit different project types. I'll explain more about that if need be. Hopefully they have gotten their act straight.

[Wacom: The Pen itself]
Luckily I found a hack where I was able to get a 3rd party stylus/pen to work with my Wacom tablet. This is also something I hope they have improved. The nub/tip wasn't versatile enough in size/accuracy to accomplish everything I was hoping for. Great for general brush strokes, but sometimes unusable for fine pixel art, or vector painting like in Ink Space

[Laptop w/Touch-Screen -(Converts to Tablet)]
I had a laptop with touchscreen capability. (unfortunately at the time (4 years ago) widescreen wasn't as common).

I'll edit in the exact model w/ link.

The laptop allowed for twisting the screen 180 degrees and closing the lid. OS was windows XP, and IIRC there was no multi-touch capability (that would have been nice).

It was so much easier to work right on the image itself than it could ever be with my Wacom. For me personally, working right on the media via the touchscreen, inside whatever art/modeling package, was way more intuitive and productive.

That said, the only time my Wacom got any use was when I was tracing in non digital media for either reference or finsih work.

.............

~ZENassem
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Fuzz
19
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Location: Tasmania, Australia
Posted: 6th Dec 2011 13:38
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Hey mate, I haven't used a touch screen one but I've got Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium which I picked up for around $150AU and it works great. I haven't had any trouble with it so I'm sure any one you get will be worth it.

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Quik
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 13:45
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Touch screen?
mind if you give us a link to this intous 4 you are buying?


The result of origin.. Oh and ponies
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Oolite
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Location: Middle of the West
Posted: 6th Dec 2011 14:32
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If you really want to shell out 2k for a wacom touch screen tablet then i'd recommend you do so. I've been after one for years after using one at the learning center i was teaching at. You can get a touch screen tablet if you wish, but all of the ones I have tried are designed more to navigate the windows OS with, rather than any art skills. You won't get the level of control of a tablet on a touch screen computer.

I was a cheapskate years ago when i bought my volito2. It's far too small to use properly and takes a lot of skill to work out the difference between the screen and your tablet. It also doesn't have any support for tilt and the pressure sensitivity levels are low compared to the Intuos. If you're serious about this but don't have the money to shell out on a Cintiq then you should definitely purchase the Intuos, they are still classed as industry standard and you aren't going to purchase a better quality of tablet. Sure, it does take some time to get used to using one but once you do you'll never regret it.

Oh, just buy the biggest one you can afford though, size does mean a lot and whilst you can get away with a smaller one, they are more difficult to use and you will spend more time adjusting.
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Van B
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 18:26
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I have a cheap A4 tablet that was ok, but really Wacom tablets have the best response. I use a little A5 Bamboo these days, and really I'd only change to an A4 Wacom tablet.

Ohh, and see if you can get a free copy of ArtRage with it - it's an art package designed for tablets, rotating canvas is especially handy, but the main thing is that it's artistic and fun to use. Would be great for concept art I think. Personally I only use the tablet for more organic texture work, so I can get away with just a smaller tablet I can whip out any time... A4 tablets and bigger take up a too much space for my liking.

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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Quik
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 19:18
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me myself have a A6 intous 4, however its.. a bit too small for my taste, so for this christmas iam wishing for a A4 ^^

A6 was perfect for testing and seeing how it worked though


The result of origin.. Oh and ponies
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heyufool1
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 20:01
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For a cheap route you might want to also look into the Monoprice drawing tablets. They look promising.

"So hold your head up high and know. It's not the end of the road"

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 20:10
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Do not get Monoprice tablets...I made that mistake. They're cheap, but unfortunately either do no work altogether or are only 100% responsive or 0% responsive...stick with Wacom.

http://www.jlmoondog.com/
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heyufool1
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 20:17
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Quote: "They're cheap, but unfortunately either do no work altogether or are only 100% responsive or 0% responsive...stick with Wacom."

Crap, I was hoping to get one of those just for some doodling and things, oh well.

"So hold your head up high and know. It's not the end of the road"

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Kezzla
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 20:34
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Thank-you all for your responses.


I looked at the Cintiq tablets too, and they are amazing, but simply out of my price range at three grand a pop.

Here is a link to the model I'm considering buying.

http://www.wacom.asia/au/intuos4/large

glad to see people have had mostly positive experiences with Wacom tablets.

I'll be using it with windows 7 64 bit. are you guys all using windows with your tablets?

the tablet I used in art school was an a3 Wacom(not sure of the model, but a good one 10 years ago). I used it with a mac and it worked really well. I never thought that it may have issues with windows.

Really looking forward to digital painting again, drawing with the mouse is just annoying.

Sometimes I like to use words out of contents
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Quik
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 21:27
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but thats not touchscreen, at any rate thats what i am getting for christmas^^


The result of origin.. Oh and ponies
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Kezzla
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 21:33
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Quote: "but thats not touchscreen"

yeah, i know, I can live without touchscreen, I just wasnt sure if the new school touchscreen devices had made wacom tablets obselete.
Quote: "at any rate thats what i am getting for christmas"

very cool Christmas present.

Sometimes I like to use words out of contents
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 6th Dec 2011 23:33
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Wacom Bamboo. Buy it, its small and ideal, just make sure you're going to use it all the time, unlike me who sold it on for £25 :\.
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Quik
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 00:00
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iam dissappoint that there are no Bamboos larger than A5 D': /(medium)

since theyre cheaper D': oh well, if youre going for less than A4 then yes, get an bamboo


The result of origin.. Oh and ponies
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 02:36 Edited at: 7th Dec 2011 05:51
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HOLY CRAP THE 21' WACOM tablet is my dream! but i cant afford one

i cant say anything about ipads or other tablets in terms of using them to draw stuff but i heard they arnet very good for it because the lack sensetivity for good drawing. But the 21' wacom Ciniq is like this super high tech tablet with like 200 or more pressure levels and i just want one BAAADLY! I am thinking of getting myself one once i payback all my debt

But really, my friend is a professional graphics dude and he says good things about Wacom stuff.


dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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bitJericho
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 12:42 Edited at: 7th Dec 2011 12:43
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I got a nice tablet laptop for 250 bucks on ebay. It's a m200 toshiba with a super-hi def screen.

It's a slower computer but it's definately usable and the drawing part is on par with wacom tablets I've used in the past.

I'd recommend using windows XP on that particular model for the best performance/driver compatibility.


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Lukas W
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 12:59
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I've been using Intuos3 A4 size for quite some time. And very happy with it. Would love a Intuos4, but as the saying goes; If it works, don't fix it.

The Taffer (+TaffED)
A thief inspired game along with the mission editor (DBPro). [on hiatus]
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bond1
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 18:11
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I love my Wacom Intuos 4 Medium. Not too small and not too large. From what I hear, Wacom are the gold standard and you shouldn't bother with anything else.

Wacom finally made a tablet for lefties like me, you can just turn the tablet around and all the function keys automatically adjust.



SPECS: Windows7 x64, Intel Core i7 920, Geforce GTX 580, 6GB RAM
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Quik
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Posted: 7th Dec 2011 18:17
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Quote: "Wacom finally made a tablet for lefties like me, you can just turn the tablet around and all the function keys automatically adjust."


Thats great!


The result of origin.. Oh and ponies
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