Intuos 2 vs. Intuos 3

shotgun

so, is the fancy top of the line Intuos 3 really worth the money?

both have 1024 levels of sensetivety, which is - bottom line - what we each use the most. All the rest is orbitting in useless mode innit. waddya say?

MoP

I can't imagine how any of the "extra functions" on the Intuos3 would be worth any more to me than what I use at the moment on the Intuos2... personally I think the buttons across the top of the tablet are useless, I only ever use the pen buttons.
I think I remember hearing that a lot of people ended up just disabling the scroll-wheel thing on the side of the Intuos3 because it was annoying.
Intuos2 is much cheaper these days anyway, and IMHO will do all you need it to do...

JordanW

i also recommend the intuos2, i've owned an intuos 1 and 2 and i've yet to actually use tablet buttons. I also dont like the feel of the harder plastic surface on the intuos 3 but that's simply a personal preferance. I know if you'd like to try drawing on a intuos 3 some apple stores have them hooked up to their display computers.

shotgun

thank you guys.

Ryno

Are those buttons on the side and top of the 3 model acually supposed to DO something besides annoy me?

skrubbles

well in 3d/texturing I think the intuos3 buttons are pretty useless because i use way too many shortcuts that I can't program into the tablet buttons... But when I have Painter open and I don't need to concentrate on detailing because I'm just doodling, the bottons are sweet... I can actually sit back in my chair and put my feet on the desk and just use the buttons on the tablet to do what I need.

Rwolf

I still want to try out Intuos's 3 6D Pen :P

The only buttons I use on the Intuos 2 is the the Pressure Senitivity buttons when I'm using painter.

I should probably rebind some of the buttons on the 2 so I can stop moving over to the keyboard to zoom and select brushes

Joshua Stubbles

The only button I ever use on my Intuos2 is the 'make firm' button, for the pressure.

arshlevon

i dont know about the intous 3 but the concept artist at work has a new cintiq with the buttons and it is pretty cool.. he dosent even need the keyboard, all the shortcuts are on the buttons.. i have the older cintiq at work and i think for zbrush if i could map the shift ctrl alt and s keys to my tablet it would be heaven..

pyromania

The other change was that they doubled the lines per inch of resolution on the Intuos3. Intuos2 has 2540 lpi and the Intuos3 has 5080 lpi. I don't know how that compares to a intuo2. I went from a graphire2 to a intuos3 and the extra lpi was definatly noticable.

I don't use the side buttons hardly at all. I do like the touch strips though. I have them bound to [ and ] so I can adjust brush size just by moving my thumb across the strip.

Jeff Parrott

Well, the Intuos 3 is really shiny. Suppose that's worth the upgrade right there.

DH_

I went from an intuos 1 to an intuos 3 and I dont reall notice much difference to be honest. I turned off all its extra support functions and only ever find myself just using the pen on the surface. I dont regret my purchase though.

Vark

I've got a 2 at home and a 3 here at work (god.. It's depressing that I can say 'here at work' at 6:30pm on a Sunday :P)

Anyway, yea, the buttons, I don't use them. I suppose they could be set up to do something useful as the scroll bar on the 3 you can use with your finger and you can use it to change brush sizes, but more often than not i'd accidentially brush that side of the tablet with my hand and it got real annoying real quick.

I don't think I'd ever replace my keyboard shortcuts, sure its combersome to have a keyboard and a tablet going at once, but the keyboard is soooo much faster for stuff I use all the time while painting (brush sizes, eye drop select, scrolling around the picture, etc).

Go with the 2 if they're that much cheaper... unless you really need a shinier plastic.

thomasp

i've intuos1 at home and use(d) intuos2 and 3 at work. i don't see the need for an upgrade within the intuos series. feels all the same to me. intuos2 has this ridiculous case color though, so that might be a reason to move up for some people

i found the intuos3 pen doesn't feel "right" (but somewhat cheaply made) but of course the option to put in different tips is pretty cool. no need for several different pens any more.
the hotkeys and scroll strips i found rather useless stuff that gets in the way.