Wacom Graphire3 or Intuos II

[Epix]

I'm thinking about gettin' a Wacom Tablet to help speeding and improving my photo-retouching. And while I've been informing myself and going to a store where they only had a cheap Graphire3 I'm wondering what the difference to the Intuos 2 would be.

It seems rather strange that a similar size Intuos2 tablet would cost about 4times of the graphire3.

I already thought to get the A4 Intuos2 which is rather expensive. But as the shop did only have the Graphire's at that incredible low price I was a bit shocked and almost purcheased one right away. But then again I often rush into get-the-cheapo-thing-first followed by the get-the-right-stuff-which-is-expensive-but-required.

The graphire felt a bit cheap and I hope the intuos feels more robust?!

Help me justify, please :-)

[roger_ele]

I have a graphire 4x5? (about 1+ year old that I got bundled with painter) - don't know if it is graphire 2 or 3 (it doesn't say on the back) - I also have two Intuos 6x8's - the Intuos is definantly more robust and I am not sure exactly why, but I like using the Intuos a lot better. I use the Intuos's on the desktop computers and the graphire on the notebook computer.

I would say the difference is worth it if you are using it for professional work of a high enough volumn to where the little things become important ... the graphire does work and without any complaints if you havn't experienced the difference.

Roger

[G. Couch]

I have had no problems with my Graphire for 2 years. I only use it about twice a week though, mostly for artwork and occasional photo restoration. The Intuos has more options and runs at a higher resolution, making it more precise than the Graphire. As Roger stated, if you are doing a large volume of work, or need to make very precise masks, etc..., I would get the largest Intuos that you can afford.

[paulette conlan]

Hi
I wound up with the Intuous2 6X8 and have been very satisfied with it. I got it directly from Wacom and got a better price on it than one being offered by a large photo "discount store I tend to deal with. I used an 800 number that they had on their site and spoke to a very helpful representative. And believe it or not, the package arrived in two days by Fed Ex which I didn't pay extra for. Also got a basic version of Corel Painter with it that I upgraded to the full version Painter 8 which by the way I have a love-hate relationship with. Still trying to work up the courage to get something presentable enough to submit on this site using Painter!
Anyway, once I started using the graphics pen, I don't know how I was able to do without it.


Paulette