Quick Wacom Question

Playdo

I've hardly ever used drawing tablets and I'm thinking of picking up a cheap Wacom to play about with. I saw a post here a while back praising the new Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet and was just wondering .. as the Pen only tablet does not have an eraser, is it worthwhile getting the Pen and Touch instead, as it has an eraser on the pen?

My initial thoughts are that it would be easier to switch to eraser in Photoshop and use the nib to erase. What do you guys use?

UPDATE: I've had the tablet for a couple of weeks now and here are my impressions. I went for the pen and touch instead of the pen tablet. I like having the 4 buttons on the tablet as, in Photoshop, I've assigned them to brush size and hardness up/down, with the pen buttons set to Ctrl+Z and Alt+Ctrl+Z. This means that I can do a lot of painting using only the tablet. Anything can be assigned to the tablet's buttons. My technique might change in time though as I haven't used the tablet for long.

The touch feature has its pros and cons. It's nice for browsing the web. The big benefit for me is that, if you have two monitors, you can assign the pen to one monitor and you can assign the touch for both monitors. This means I can work on one monitor and then, when browsing, I can jump over to the second monitor using the touch. I haven't encountered any problem with touch being activated whilst using the pen. I can't say if I'd notice the difference between 512 and 1024 pressure levels as I haven't compared.

In all, it's a really nice little tablet. Definitely worth the cash. To be able to jump between two monitors makes it worth the extra over the Pen model for me. If I continue to use the onboard buttons then that's an extra too.

xk0be

I find it much faster to just press e then b on the kb than flipping the pen around and back. (assuming you're talking about photoshop)

cryrid

I rarely use the eraser side on a stylus

jimmypopali

Yup, they are right. I mean, your fingers are already on the keyboard, may as well use your keyboard hand.

Nice concept of the eraser, but I don't use it.

Elyaradine

Ditto.

To be honest, from my experience with a couple of tablets, all I really need is pressure sensitivity, and tilt on occasion. All of the other buttons, knobs and whatnot I find to be gimmicky.

That said, I've never played with the touch stuff of the new Bamboo, though I imagine that to someone who's used to having one hand on the stylus and the other on the keyboard it probably wouldn't be that useful either...

Playdo

That's what I thought. Thanks

Playdo

I couldn't find all the specs for both of these tablets.

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-Bamboo-Pen-Graphics-Tablet/dp/B002Q4U4AE/ref=pd_cp_computers_1[/ame]

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-Bamboo-Pen-and-Touch/dp/B002Q4U4AY/ref=pd_cp_computers_1[/ame]

Does anyone know if the Pen and Touch has 512 sensitivity like the Pen? If so, is the only difference between the two the ability to use it as a touch pad?

Playdo

Ok, I just found out that the Pen and Touch tablet has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity whereas the Pen tablet has 512 levels.

Would this difference in pressure sensitivity make much of a difference and would it be worthwhile paying £67 instead of £44 for it? I'm not interested in the touch feature, I just want to use it for Photoshop. As I said, I've hardly used a tablet before so would appreciate hearing from someone who's compared this.

Elyaradine

Gah. They're so much cheaper for you! :P In South Africa, the cheapest, most basic Bamboo clocks in at about R1000 (approx 90GBP).

Anyway. I bought a Graphire4 almost four years ago. (It's the tablet that later got rebranded as the Bamboo.) I bought an Intuos4 last year. That was a jump from 512 pressure levels to 2048 pressure levels. I personally didn't notice any difference. Other things were different of course, including the much lighter activation pressure, and tilt.

I suppose it'd depend on the way you use it. The way I draw, which is pretty much the way I've seen everyone else work, is primarily with short, quickish strokes of fairly low opacity, building up gradients that way rather than doing them in one stroke. I guess with this method you wouldn't really notice the pressure difference much, but maybe if you made longer strokes with a very steady hand it might be more of an issue... (speculation.)

In the end though, I think it's more about your being a good or bad artist. I don't think the difference in pressure sensitivity is going to make much of a difference, and it obviously depends on your budget. I'd probably just get the cheaper one. They last for a good few years anyway, and by that time you should know how useful you've found them, whether you'll need them for work, earned a bit of money, and be able to afford something with more gimmicks anyway. :P

Playdo

Elyaradine, that's how I always feel whenever I look at the prices in the states. They just change the dollar symbol to a pound sign.

I was just about to buy the Pen version and saw that the Pen+Touch had 4 programmable buttons on it too. Would these get used or is it easier to just assign a couple of buttons to the pen (ie ctrl z) and use the keyboard for the rest?

Elyaradine

I've got the Intuos4 Large, with a touch ring and programmable buttons. The only "programming" that I've done was to disable the touch ring because my hand often brushes over it by mistake. :P I've pretty much never used those buttons (aside from trying them out when I got them, saying "Oh, cool!", and now knowing I have the option).

Bear in mind that I'm using this tablet after having spent around 3-4 years on one without the extras (like extra buttons), so I'm probably just used to using keyboard shortcuts all the time. (After all, working with one hand on the stylus and the other on the keyboard gives you, like, how many "programmable buttons" (if you install some cheap/free macro key software, or just learn the Photoshop shortcut keys)?)

That said, some of my friends do use them. I guess if you started off on one that has them you'd probably use them more often than I have, but regardless you'd probably need to reach for your keyboard fairly often anyway.

tl;dr: All you really *need* is pressure sensitivity. Almost everything else is fluff.

cryrid

I was just about to buy the Pen version and saw that the Pen+Touch had 4 programmable buttons on it too. Would these get used or is it easier to just assign a couple of buttons to the pen (ie ctrl z) and use the keyboard for the rest?

I have an intous4, and I put the buttons to heavy use (more so in zbrush than photoshop, but still)

Playdo

Thanks. I ordered it the other day and went for the pen and touch. I wasn't sure if the buttons would be useful for me or not so thought it better to spend the extra £20 rather than possibly regretting it.

arrangemonk

but bamboo pen only in left hand mode is just about the perfect right hand tablet (hand cen rest were usually the buttons are)

Playdo

.. a bit late to the party, Monk.

Elyaradine

cryrid wrote: »

I have an intous4, and I put the buttons to heavy use (more so in zbrush than photoshop, but still)

What do you bind the buttons to do?

cryrid

The main ones are D, shift, and alt

Those three alone allow me to shift up and down subdivision levels, smooth, switch between z-add/z-sub, and control the camera.

Elyaradine

Oh, right. I thought maybe you'd used a combination or something, because those keys to me are just as easy on the keyboard. :P To each his own I guess.

Playdo

Just updated the thread for anyone who's interested.