Recommend me a tablet

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2008-04-10 10:09am

My birthday is coming up, and to go with my increased writing, I plan to get into artwork a bit more heavily (partially to illustrate my notes, which look damn fine stuck up on my wall, and really keep me focused). So I need a decent Wacom tablet (any other decent brand and model is fine too), for ~100 AUD or so. I can probably stretch my budget to about ~150, but I'd prefer not to.

So any help from the board's artists and techheads would be great.

Jaepheth · Post by **Jaepheth** » 2008-04-10 10:49am

All I can say is stay away from Aiptek.

I have one of their tablets... it sucks. The pen (when it worked) had button issues (either wouldn't register a press or would stick) and it would not stay in fixed mode and would keep changing to relative tracking mode. I sent an e-mail to their tech support, and they never got back to me. All-around waste of money.

Oskuro · Post by **Oskuro** » 2008-04-10 12:32pm

I got a Wacom Bamboo Fun, and can't really complain (my trouble comes from trying to use it with The Gimp under WinXP), feels like a decent starter tablet, although I did go a bit overbudget with it, but, in my opinion, the "eraser" double stylus is worth it.

Ironically, it's easier to configure the tablet for The Gimp under Linux, wich I intend to do.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2008-04-10 05:00pm

You might be able to find a used, 1G tablet PC in that price range. I personally find the tablet PC concept more interesting than the tablet monitor concept, or worse, the desktop pad concept, but that said, there is a $2,000 Wacom monitor that I'd love to add to my collection at some point. A lot of graphics designers use it with their Macs and Adobe CS*.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2008-04-10 05:08pm

I've got a Wacom Graphire tablet that I always use with my computer, and it works pretty well. But I've also got an early generation tablet PC TC1000, and even though it doesn't even have pressure sensitivity, it's so much easier to use than the Wacom tablet. Being able to hold it and move it around and to see the image as you draw is extremely useful.

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2008-04-12 10:16am

Found a Bamboo in black for a decent price, figured I'd run it past everyone before buying it, get their opinions.

http://www.buywacom.com.au/products.cfm ... 5E0D&ID=29

Decent deal? Skip it and go for something else? (I must note I'd prefer a black model over silver, to the point of paying 5-10 dollars extra for such)

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-04-12 02:44pm

I spent about an hour drawing on the big Wacom and the Wonder Con in SF. I absolutely fell in love with it. If I had more use for it then just drawing, I would have bought it.

generator_g1 · Post by **generator_g1** » 2008-04-13 10:32am

The Bamboo is already fine. If you can get an Intuos in the same price range, then that's even better.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2008-04-13 11:00am

I have a Graphire4, but I understand the Bamboo's taken over its role for the low-end user market. I love it. Works great not just with Photoshop, but with GIMP as well.

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2008-04-14 03:07pm

havokeff wrote:I spent about an hour drawing on the big Wacom and the Wonder Con in SF. I absolutely fell in love with it. If I had more use for it then just drawing, I would have bought it.

Did you end up buying one at all?