The Tablet Thread

[violin]

I haven't tried the other ones. But I really like the Bamboo. Solid device with cool design. Nice surface - almost like paper. Very confortable and light pen. No battery. Comes with Corel Painter Essentials 4 and is very easy to install.

[Hamachi]

I forgot to mention that unless you have Windows 7 - Which everyone should! - you should be prepared to install drivers for your new non-Wacom tablets. Which means a very small degree of computer-savvyness. If you're a teenager or older like me you should be able to figure it out fine.

I finally chose a F610 because the active area has the exact same proportions as my screen. Also, it looks snazzy as heck. I'll let you guys know if it's good or bad when I get it. :P

[LVUER]

If you really like to draw (and will draw a lot) and perhaps even considering professional career in field that involves drawing, I really suggest buying Wacom Intous series (the latest is Intuos 4 series, if I'm not mistaken).

[GunZet]

Wacom: Bamboo is the way to go. If you want performance for cheap, and something actually fking fits on your small ass desk such as mine? Try getting the Bamboo Pen model, it's epic.

[PWhit]

Honestly, I went for the bamboo because it was cheap and got the job done. You can adjust the colors in photoshop if you really want to experiment with pressure sensitivity and shades.

[LVUER]

All from Wacom:

Bamboo (or Bamboo Fun) -> Its spec (esp. Fun series) could be used for professional drawing, but cheap enough so it won't too much a waste if you decide tablet is not your thing. The active surface area feels like paper. Newer Bamboo series have touch area instead of ring like on its predecessor (it also have a bit higher specs but there's increase in price). Pen is very durable and light (doesn't need any batteries).

Intuos (the latest is Intuos 4) -> High spec, very recommended for professionals. Come with variety of "head" (like airbrush head) and nib, could detect rotation and direction of your pen. The specs is much higher than Bamboo (but so is the price tag). It's also feels like paper and the pen is much more sensitive than Bamboo's pen (some of my friends think it's even too sensitive). It also have lots of button and a touch area.

Cintiq: Very, I mean VERY expensive (could up to US$4000). A dream tablet for every illustrator (and really, most can only dream about it). The spec is a little bit lower when compared to Intuos, but it's like a touch screen. It's a very big high-res monitor built into your tablet >o< I think if you have this, you don't need to have a monitor anymore. For those who doesn't feel comfortable with traditional tablet (where you don't see your own hand when drawing), this could make a big difference.

And there's also a new addition to Wacom series, Bamboo Touch. The price is similar to Bamboo and the spec is about the same, but it utilize more the new touch feature. I don't really know about this one since it seems that this series doesn't enter my country (I know about this from Wacom international website).

[Rio]

From what I've read about the Touch, you're pretty much using your fingers in lieu of a pen. With that information, I'm not too sure about the accuracy of the lines from the tablet to the PC especially for fine coloring work - you have to find a video or review online to really see how that pans out.

Anyways, the Bamboo is cool and all but I find the nib wearing out real fast as compared to the Intous' pen nib. I had to actually used one of the spare Intous nibs I had for the Bamboo pen and it's holding up much better. Speaking of pen nibs - we were talking about this before so if you need a replacement, you can use toothpicks instead.

Cintiq :droool:

[Celestial-Fox]

If anyone has questions about the Cintiq, I also know that NTop has one and would probably be happy to answer anyone's questions regarding it. :>

[violin]

I think the Cinitq is too expensive.
The screen and the tablet are cheaper so why so expensive when combined into a single device. It should even be cheaper. So searched the net abit and I just found these:
http://www2.ambientdesign.com/forums...ad.php?t=27047
http://www.bongofish.co.uk/wacom/wacom_pt1.html
http://www.tabletmod.com/

My birthday is aproaching and it would be a nice use of my electrical engineering skills. Looks abit complicated but people have done it so I may give it a try...

[indescribable]

I have an older Bamboo Fun. I like it.

However it's going on 6 years old now, so I'm considering getting an Intuos 4. If the new, larger Bamboo Fun came with the ability to detect tilt and barrel rotation, I'd totally go for that though.