Graphics Tablets

[mresell]

Anyone using a graphics tablet looking for input on you experience w/ the one your using. I am looking at a wacom 6x8 or 12x12 graphire, but saw a few people comment on the fact that the stylus starts to react diff after a short time. Don't want to spend the xtra on the intuos not knowing whether it is going to be much better. I certainly don't need one of the $1000 calcomp models tho. (above my current budget)

[Brangwyn]

Personally I don't think you can go past any wacom tablet .. I've had an old 5x7 or whatever it is for a few years, stylus feels still the same as it did the day I brought it.

[Light Speed]

Another thumbs up for the Wacom Graphire. I've been using the Graphire 2 4x5 model for 4 years and it is still going strong. I use it as my only device (no mice) and use it about 10-18 hours a day 7 days a week. In that time the only problem I have had is that I wear out the plastic sheet that covers the tablet but they are replaceable, cheap and are available through Wacom. I'm on my third sheet
The main difference between the Graphire line and the Intuos line for me is the level of sensitivity and the advanced brush angle features that Intuos has. I do lots of photo retouching and background removal in PhotoShop and sometimes my little Graphire isn't as sensitive as I would like so when I get around to getting a new tablet it will probably be an Intuos. For everyday use my Graphire is great. If I had stuck with a mouse my arm would have fallen off years ago

[mresell]

Thanks for the input. I know wacom has the rep for quality on their previous products I was particular wondering about the graphire 3 (usb instead of serial) since that is the new one. The software support and hw quality are both important. A couple of people said their stylus became unresponsive after a few months. Unfortunately nobody is making things as good anymore, in an effort to be cheaper so I was concerned. I wanted to get the graphire because I wanted to get a real feel for what my everyday use would be before paying alot more. I feel like a 4x5 will be too small. Aside from web, and photo work I will probably be creating art work, like I do with traditional media so I definitely am debating over the 12x12 and the intuos line because of the pressure levels and sensitivity. Trying to replace a paint brush or other media is difficult, but less messy I suppose if I get a 12x12 Intuos it might be cheaper, in the long run, rather than buying another to upgrade, even tho they ain't cheap. Would be nice to play with them before buying. The local art store downtown is probably the only place I would find them and they probably wouldn't have a demo. I would like to see just how sensitive the intuos is. Also I have a huge mahogany desk, but wonder how cumbersome a 12x12 will be on the desktop w/ everything else. I just got a lovely 19" lcd w/ an optical glass panel a few months back and have really loved the clarity. The best lcd I have seen. An AG neovo...really an exceptional monitor for the price.


Apparently, it is a 9x12 not a 12x12...so that is a few inches there.

[epiphany]

I'm using a wacom intuos as well and it's great. Like lightspeed I use it all the time as my main input device as well as for graphics (infact when I do find myself having to use a mouse now for anything it's a frustrating cumbersome affair).

I've had it for a few years now and there has been no problem with the pen becoming unresponsive or anything like that. The only problem I've had is that I've worn through the plastic sheet and I'm down to my last tip as I've worn down all the other ones. As Lightspeed says these are easily replaceable though, and the plastic sheet stood up well for a couple of years or more (can't remember exactly) before it got to the point it needed to be replaced and considering how much I use it that's not bad.

I can't really comment on the graphires though. If you're thinking of getting a smaller graphire to start with then upgrading to an intuos later, have you thought about buying a secondhand intuos from ebay? I've seen some of them on there for not much more than a new graphire (at least at the smaller sizes). That would offer you the chance of evaluating the intuos itself and would offer you the opportunity to get your money back if you decide to upgrade to a bigger version later because you'll probably be able to sell the one you bought second hand for around the same price as you bought it (more if you're lucky).

They seem pretty well made if mine is anything to go by, so at the worse buying one in second hand condition might mean that you've got to replace a plastic sheet or buy a few little plastic nibs if they've worn down (not sure how much they are but I doubt they'd be very expensive).

[mresell]

thinking 6x8 at a minimum. What size do you use? I could check ebay, but don't really like ebay that much and would rather not buy second hand. I have a nice new system and am very funny about unknown parts The 6x8 intuos seems to be had for around 300. Several people were also fussing about sp2 messing up the software tho. Not sure if they didn't know what they were doing or not. About twice what the graphire is. I am curious how responsive it actually is compared to graphire. I am glad they seem to be holding up tho. The couple of complaints were for the graphire. Since I am looking at some other expenditures I was hoping to not have to spend $300-400 for a tablet. Oh well....

[epiphany]

The one I have is one of the smaller ones (A6 - a size smaller than the 6x8 A5 ones you're looking at).

As far as second hand stuff goes, the way I tend to look at that where a budget is involved is that I can either have something that's good but used, or something not so good that's new. In this case for the size you're looking for I guess the graphire might be a good bet if they're a lot cheaper than a second hand intuos at the size you want (there's probably a good reason for that though). The other thing to consider is that they're probably going to hold their value well, so if you buy secondhand intuos, if you decided you wanted a bigger one a few months later you could probably sell it and make your money back to go towards your new tablet without loosing much if anything (not sure if you could do that if you bought a new graphire).

I'm not sure about the XPSP2 issues because I use 2000. I would have thought a company like wacom would be ontop of such issues though particularly for their pro tools.

[mresell]

I understand the feature/quality point. I have definitely done this in times past for other things. Yeah, I will check out ebay...can't hurt. I saw somewhere that the intuos has a lifetime warranty. The problem w/ second hand is you have little recourse for something and your paying a significant amt. still. even w/ ebay stuff. I know a lot of people do this, but for somethings I don't want to open a can of worms. I def am leaning toward intuos line. The intuos 3 has even more res...

[epiphany]

Yeah, that's a good point about warranties, but I don't think I've had to replace much under warranty in all the time I've been using PCs (only one thing I can remember off the top of my head - a monitor which was cheap in the first place which seems to be the telling thing - it often seems to be when cheaper parts are used that they end up having to go back). Wacom tablets (mine at least) seem to be quite sturdy so I think you'd be OK buying second hand as long as you check that it's in working condition in the ad.

If you're moving from using a mouse to a tablet you'll probably find it really helpful and a big improvement whichever way you go. Have fun

[mresell]

Yeah, I am looking forward to it. Thanks for the input. The intuos 3 is supposed to be very responsive. The lifetime warranty says as long as it is in production so it is like smc's warranty. The life of the product. I have had to have a few things replaced under warranty, unfortunately...one was a monitor...a 19" trinitron so it wasn't cheap. Have to say the extended warranty from amex saved me about $700...with no hassles. Very impressive.

[mresell]

This is a little old, but I was dissapointed that the more robust features are not on the macromedia products. Seems photoshop, painter, corel photo paint are among the few that support tilt and some other features. Maybe with pressure sensitivity, it will not be so bad. Looks like I will be getting a 9x12. It's huge, but will give me the most flexibility, using my 19" and doing other art work...since I doubt I will need to buy another for awhile. That way I won't have to worry I got it to small. Guess I will find out soon.

[epiphany]

I'm not sure why you'd need to use the tilt feature in flash, because it's vector based (I'm a bit out of date as far as flash goes though so perhaps it has more tools now than the version I used to use).

Good luck with the tablet anyway. I'm sure you won't be disapointed (and the size you're getting sounds great - wish I could stretch to buying one that size but for what I need it for at the moment couldn't really justify it - will probably be great at that size for hand-drawing and natural media simulation stuff!).

Have fun

[Light Speed]

Originally Posted by mresell

This is a little old, but I was dissapointed that the more robust features are not on the macromedia products. Seems photoshop, painter, corel photo paint are among the few that support tilt and some other features. Maybe with pressure sensitivity, it will not be so bad. Looks like I will be getting a 9x12. It's huge, but will give me the most flexibility, using my 19" and doing other art work...since I doubt I will need to buy another for awhile. That way I won't have to worry I got it to small. Guess I will find out soon.

Like epiphany said, Flash is vector. The apps you mentioned are all bitmap image editors and that's where the tilt and pressure sensitivity really come in to play. When working with vector data you don't want or need that type of control as you just want to select and move vector points. You are right though that Macromedia does have some products where it could add more tablet support such as FireWorks but I would not consider that my primary image editing app
PhotoShop or Painter will really let you put that tablet to work!

[generic]

do you recommend one for basic web development too over a mouse?

mostly web graphics and website design.

[epiphany]

You can use the brush tool in flash with pressure sensitivity I think (or at least you can on my old intuos and the old version of flash I use). Sometimes handy for sketching out vector cartoons and such. You're right though there isn't much need for it outside of that that I can see.

tracewebspace: I personally find it helpful for everything. They take a little getting used to at first, but I find the pen better even for coding (though graphic work is where it really comes into its own). The way a pen/tablet works is that rather than dragging the pointer across the page as you would when moving a mouse, you can just put it down at a particular point on the surface of the tablet and the pointer will jump to that point on the screen. Once you get used to it, even for coding work it's much faster because you can just place the cursor exactly where you want it immediately. The only drawback I have is that I'm always forgetting to put the thing down and it ends up kind of balancing between my fingers when I'm typing which slows my typing speed down. This isn't really the fault of the pen though but just a bad habbit I've picked up