Need advice on buying Wacom tablet

[nebulaoperator]

I have never used the tablet for retouching work but the more I learn the more I come across that people use tablet on the daily basis for retouching.Also it feels quiet silly when lots of D&B has to be done with my mouse. Click click click click....
I want to get something budget but enough to do retouching.
Just had a quick look and saw <Wacom bamboo Pen> £38 and <Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch> for £57. Which one is more suitable for beginner ?

[drode]

I originally had an older version of the bamboo pen. It was great. Today, I have the larger Bamboo fun (I think that's what it called). The larger size is not necessarily and advantage. I like it but I have to move my arm more where just hand movements might have been enough on the smaller tablet.

I don't do much pressure wise for flow and opacity, so 256 level of pressure was enough for me. That is starting to change though. The more expensive pro tablets have 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Mine is a pen + touch tablet.You might like the touch feature. I have it turned off.

[FlairDevil]

I have a Wacom Intuos4 Small Tablet.

...YOU WILL LOVE IT...

The Bamboo series are basically the same idea, they just don't have the extra buttons. Not that big of a deal if you are "trying" it out per se'. After using it for about 6 months now I can't imagine going back to a mouse. I have been trying to convince wifey I "need" a Cintiq, but tho date, she's not on board. o.O What. I only want the 12. lol

The Intuos and Bamboo are basically the same thing (the small Intuos anyway) in that they have virtually the exact same size tablet usable area. 4"x6". I find perhaps a slightly larger one might be better but am not sold on the 22" ones, it seems like you would have to use too much exaggerated arm movements, but for detail work it would probably be a great benefit. If i had it to do over, I would have gotten the cheaper Bamboo, or the more expensive Medium Intuos to start out with. The one I bought, I got "oooo shiny'd" with the buttons I rarely use.

If it were me I would get the regular Bamboo, skip the touch. The touch one just adds the ability to use your finger to control the mouse. Yeah, because people are lining up around the corner raving about how well mouse touchpads are to use, right? ;-) It's not going to be intuitive for you, as opposed to using a Wacom "pen" just like it's a PITA to use them on a laptop.

[bpurvis]

I've had the Wacom Intuos 3 (6"x8") tablet for several years now and can't imagine not having it. The size is perfect and using the pen is so much faster and easier than the mouse - besides being so much easier on the wrist. If you plan to photoshop for hours a day over a number of years, I would take care of that wrist. (Thus speaks the voice of experience. )
Becky

[Rust]

I also have a wacom intuos 4 medium. I do retouching for many hours a day. And i love it , just one of those things i can`t live with out. I agree with bpurvis, it saves your wrist, but it takes some time to get used to. In my opinion i would buy the one with pen pressure, so you would have the option to work with pen pressure. The price gap in between isn`t all that much anyway( in my opinion)

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you for massive reply. Is there any difference if I use 24" monitor? Should I go for 6"x8" instead of 4"x6"?
The other thing I was thinking how does is it work with tablet. Is it same way mouse and keybord interact together?
Does number of pressure points really matter? 250 vs 500vs 1000 lets say.

[garibaldi]

Id say if you can stretch and spend a few hundred, then get a larger intuos. what are they now the 4's? I bought my 9x12 intuos 3 back in 2007 and I cant live without it. I have another smaller 3 that I use when im on location and have my macbook and cases etc. I dont know about the cheaper versions. but if your going to buy something look at it like this.... your going to fall in love with it. its going to make you wonder why you ever used a mouse, and you are going to come to rely on it for years to come. so spending the extra bucks when you look at how it amortizes itself over the lifespan is really not that bad. versus getting a cheaper model and finding that you want to have the additional features, and then buying another one. Hey look, if you got a 4 and decided that you really didnt like it, I bet dollars to donuts you would have no problme selling it. if you put it up here for sale or on ebay, someone would jump all over it

[nebulaoperator]

I can't stretch it at the moment. I would make it shorter since I am advised to stretch my budget. Will it be enough to use to use Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet for retouching?

[garibaldi]

im sure it will be fine

[drode]

Yes. Absolutely. Even the least expensive wacom tablets are excellent compared to using a mouse for retouching. I've been using the Bamboo series for about 3 years with no problems. I still don't feel the need to upgrade to the more expensive Intous or Clique.

Originally Posted by nebulaoperator

I can't stretch it at the moment. I would make it shorter since I am advised to stretch my budget. Will it be enough to use to use Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet for retouching?

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you very much to all of you fellows!

[eraanexact]

I have a small 6x8 Intuos tablet at home, and at work I use a 22" Intuos. I don't think bigger is actually better in this case, I find them both comfortable to work with.

[Skizz]

I bought the Bamboo Pen just the other week and I'm in love, I too wanted to start off on a budget just in case I couldn't use it or hated the thing, but it really suits my needs.

I would say that the size probably wouldn't be much good if I wanted to draw and paint more seriously but for retouching and sketching it's a dream!

[Cron]

I've used A4, A5 and A6 sized Wacoms and the A5 is by far the best size for me. A6 is too small and you need to concentrate on hitting things like buttons and with A4 you need too big movements to my taste.

Intuos4 M seems to be closest to A5 at the moment.

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you skizz

Originally Posted by Skizz

I bought the Bamboo Pen just the other week and I'm in love, I too wanted to start off on a budget just in case I couldn't use it or hated the thing, but it really suits my needs.

I would say that the size probably wouldn't be much good if I wanted to draw and paint more seriously but for retouching and sketching it's a dream!

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you.

Would you tell me Intuos vs bamboo? Why do you use Intuos? thank you. Neb

Originally Posted by Cron

I've used A4, A5 and A6 sized Wacoms and the A5 is by far the best size for me. A6 is too small and you need to concentrate on hitting things like buttons and with A4 you need too big movements to my taste.

Intuos4 M seems to be closest to A5 at the moment.

[capburl]

have you looked into alternative options?

[DekHog]

Originally Posted by capburl

have you looked into alternative options?

There are no alternative options......

[ShogunSho]

I got a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium size. I would recommend the medium size. It is true that small size is convenient but there seemed to be several features missing out from itself. The longer you use it, you will feel that you might desire to have more of the features.

Anything larger than Medium might be a hassle in terms of your workspace area.

I use the medium to carry around along with my laptop. It's about the same size and I just bought a laptop case to eventually keep my wacom tablet for it. Then when I use my wacom with the desktop computers, I have quite enough space and it seemed compatible with a 20-24 inch screen.

In terms of using the tablet for your retouch work, it get some learning curve and take sometime. The best practice is to draw several circles to make sure it is a circle not oval.

Using wacom is totally different feel as oppose to writing or drawing with pen or pencil. The control is totally more complicated and you are actually watching the screen in front of you while you draw as opposed to the usual staring at the piece of paper you are writing/drawing on it.

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you ShogunSho. I have all ready ordered Bamboo pen. For a start that will do. One's I progress and retouching will make my living I will go for a better one.

[capburl]

Originally Posted by DekHog

There are no alternative options......

It all depends on what the user would like to accomplish and the device capabilities. Other companies have manufactured similar products, but I can not speak to the quality nor the capability.

Thanks.

[capburl]

Originally Posted by nebulaoperator

Thank you ShogunSho. I have all ready ordered Bamboo pen. For a start that will do. One's I progress and retouching will make my living I will go for a better one.

Congrat's. The other topic that I have not seen discussed in this topic disucussion is the portability of the device along with the ability to store the item if needed. Keep in mind some of the larger devices are a bit large to just move to the side of a desk if space is at a premium. Once again, congrat's on the new item.

[nebulaoperator]

I am back one's again to my thread and this time to ask you advise about tablet it self. I find some things quiet diferrent from using mouse like: when I use pen brush, cloning tool or just stamp tool the circle/tip -defining size is not what I see when I press the pen.Strokes are acttually narrower then the size of the brush(for example). When I use mouse strokes seems to be ,,wider,,. Do you tablet users have the same thing?Certainly need to clarify things here though I hope it makes a sence what I have writen.Thank you.

[stereokatt]

Since the mouse isn't pressure sensitive, the mouse always uses what amounts to full pressure on each stroke, so those strokes will always be as wide as whatever size brush you've chosen. With the pen, the width of the stroke usually depends on how much pressure you use. If you press down with the pen so it's receiving full pressure you'll see the stroke the same size as the brush size you've chosen.
Some programs, like Photoshop CS5, will allow you to choose whether the pen stroke is either the full size of the brush with each stroke regardless of the pressure, or if pressure determines the size, or if pressure determines both size and opacity.

[nebulaoperator]

Thank you stereokatt

I found those settings in my cs5 and able to tweak as I wish.

[isaac_magana]

I bought the Wacom Pen and I'm loving it.