[MacNN News]Briefly: Wacom Bamboo review

Started by Joe, December 21, 2007, 12:58:56 PM

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Joe

Briefly: Wacom Bamboo review


In brief: We've published a review of the Wacom Bamboo series, there are 10 new ways to trick out your MacBook, a new tutorial explains how to make icons for Mac OS X, the Firefox 3 beta has debuted, ...


http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MacnnGraphics/webdesignNews/~3/204199687/
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Laurens

My little Wacom tablet is one of the best value-for-money computer peripherals that I ever bought. I cannot imagine working in Photoshop without it.
Having fun writing about prepress & printing for my Prepressure site

Joe

I've always heard great things about them. Just might have to splurge and get myself one after the new year.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

gnubler

I'm also in line to get one...still dealing with the sore wrist/carpal tunnel deal. Got a wrist support, but I'm finding it very cumbersome to wear (despite it helping). Those Photoshop paths are the killer, for me.

Is Wacom the way to go? Why is "Tablet A" $100 and "Tablet B" $200? Anything in particular I should look for when shopping for one? Virgin tablet user here...
Hicks • Cross • Carlin • Kinison • Parker • Stone •  Colbert • Hedberg • Stanhope • Burr

"As much as I'd like your guns I prefer your buns." - The G

Quote from: pspdfppdfx on December 06, 2012, 05:03:51 PM
So,  :drunk3: i send the job to the rip with live transparecy (v 1.7 or whatever) and it craps out with a memory error.

Member #14 • Size 5 • PH8 Unit 7 • Paranoid Misanthropic Doomsayer • Printing & Drinking Since 1998 • doomed ©2011 david

David

Wacom tablets are way cool.
I have a Intuos 3 4x6 at work and a Graphire 2 4x6 at home.
The one at home I've had for about 5-6 years and I use it every day, the Intuos 3 is newish, about a year old now.

I like the smaller size so that I don't have to move my arm around too much while I draw with the pen. It's kinda like when you're writing a letter, you don't really move your hand and arm around a 21 inch surface area.

They work great in Illy (my fave) and in Photoshop. Making masks and doing retouching is just soooo easy and intuitive. I relate to using a mouse for these things "it's like drawing with a brick".

Also the fact that the mouse and pen are wireless makes them even easier to use.
We used to have some here about 15 years ago on our SGI boxes that had a wired pen, talk about clunky, and on top of that, they had these huge tablets. It made working on things so laborious.

I think the major difference in the price is for some of the features on the tablet and the pen. Myself, I don't use the buttons on the tablet, except for the scroll pad, and I've had to disable the button on the pen cause I keep squeezing it and it screws me up to look and I've got some menu on the screen or something else wacky going on.

Not sure which one I would pick today if I were to get one. The Intuos 3 is really nice, slightly overpriced at 299US, the Bamboo looks cool, not sure what you get for the 79 dollars tho. My original Graphire 2 cost me about 120US when I got it.
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

delooch

well if youre still interested, i just got the small "Bamboo" 4x5 with pen only for under $60 NEW @ amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-Pen-Tablet-Only/dp/B000V9T2JA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1202170364&sr=8-1

Its Wacom, so im hoping the quality is there, but it does only have 512 levels of sensitivity vs. the intuos' 1024

i wanted to go something more "pro", but its better than dropping $300 just to find out I dont like it.

David

I'm pretty sure you'll like it once you get use to using a pen.
You probably won't notice the difference in sensitivity. I don't between the two I use (Graphire 2 and Intuos 3).
You can set the level in the pref pane once it's installed  and it will feel just like you're writing with a ball point pen.
I haven't even had to replace the nibs in all the years I've used mine at home. The color retouchers here replace the nibs all the time. I think they don't have the sensitivity set right and they bear down on the pen tip too much.

congrats and I think you'll enjoy it!

Cheers,
David
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

gnubler

$60.49 on Amazon now. I'm really, really tempted to get this and will probably take the plunge this week. I'm often hesitant to buy yet more gadget crap, but everyone's feedback here sounds encouraging.
Hicks • Cross • Carlin • Kinison • Parker • Stone •  Colbert • Hedberg • Stanhope • Burr

"As much as I'd like your guns I prefer your buns." - The G

Quote from: pspdfppdfx on December 06, 2012, 05:03:51 PM
So,  :drunk3: i send the job to the rip with live transparecy (v 1.7 or whatever) and it craps out with a memory error.

Member #14 • Size 5 • PH8 Unit 7 • Paranoid Misanthropic Doomsayer • Printing & Drinking Since 1998 • doomed ©2011 david

David

do it!
do it!
do it!
do it!
do it!
do it!
do it!





no pressure!
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

born2print

You're making me miss my tablet, haven't had one since system8? Big-old humky Wacom but I loved it just the same. I should do it too at that price, but I just don't seem to need it nearly as much as I used to, these days.
But Gnub, I can vouch same as David, it's better ergonomics for your wrist than pushing a brick!
How will I laugh tomorrow...
when I can't even smile today?

delooch

well, to my surprise its already arrived, even with amazon standard shipping (usually takes 3 weeks)

ive been fooling with it for a couple of hours now, must say its well worth the price. navigation is a bit tricky but that will come natural in time i guess. ive been tracing/shading images in photoshop, it handles really well, and i was weary of the small tablet size, but it dosent seem like thats even going to be an issue. trying to keep a light hand is going to take some practice, and it seems that once you apply weight to a stroke, you cant 'let up' on the pen to reverse the pressure, but im sure i just havent figured it out yet. so far, so good!

David

#11
I found the smaller tablets are a lot easier to work with and don't take up a lot of desk space. I don't like moving my arm around the desk that much and the smaller tablet works great for that.

As far as the pen pressure thing, you can set the pressure in the system prefs/other/wacom tablet (which shows up when you install the driver). Once set there, you can also set it in Photoshop for some brushes as to use pressure or not.
In CS3, it's in your brush pallet under "other dynamics".
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

born2print

How will I laugh tomorrow...
when I can't even smile today?

Joe

Silly question maybe but do you tablet users only use the pen? I mean does it replace the mouse entirely or do you have them both hooked up and use the pen for just photoshop and the mouse for other things? I'd like to see how far I can toss this damn mighty mouse that requires constant cleaning of it's itty-bitty scroll ball.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

born2print

Good question Joe, I used to keep both hooked up and swap around all over the place as fancy struck me. If I got a new tablet today, I'd prolly do the same.
How will I laugh tomorrow...
when I can't even smile today?