The Energon Pub

News Credits: 38 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:06 pm

I'm looking to purchase a drawing tablet soon for some inking jobs I have coming up in my spare time. I'm looking at WACOM tablets as they seem to be the most well known. Now after looking at specs I'm down to two of them. The Bamboo Fun Medium Tablet and the Intuos3 6x8 tablet.

The only difference is the levels of pressure that it can pick up. Now is it worth the extra money for the Intuos for those extra pressure levels?

Does anyone have other suggestions?

News Credits: 7 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:49 pm

It is 110% worth it to buy the WACOM. I've used one for digital retouching for years and it works wonders. It'll take you about a day to get used to it, but hang in there. Once you've worked the kinks out you'll wonder how you ever used a mouse for digital artwork.

Oh, and if you have a widescreen monitor go with the with the wide version tablet, it'll map better.

News Credits: 38 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:55 pm

Oh trust me, I know how terrible it is using the mouse for stuff. Drawing even a simple line is rage inducing. So what one do you have?

I think I'm going to end up going with the WACOM Intuos3 as it has a much higher sensitivity. And I figure if I'm going to do this, I might as well do it right.

Now to find one for less than $300. Yikes.

News Credits: 7 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:39 pm

I have a 6x8 Intuo2, it was such a great purchase.

News Credits: 38 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:00 pm

I'm checking out the Intuos2 series and they seem to be going for pretty cheap since they're older. What do you think is a good price to pay for a used one? I'm seeing ones on ebay complete going for around $80. Think I should try and find one for a lower price?

It kind of freaks me out because they have pretty much the same exact specs yet one is $200 more expensive.

I think I'll keep an eye out for the 2 series on ebay.

News Credits: 7 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:30 pm

I paid full price for mine about five years ago, so $80 sounds pretty good. Just make sure that the drawing surface isn't scratched. It's never affected the way that mine works, but they can scratch slightly.

I'm also of the mind that if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it once. So I think I would seriously consider the three series, I've read that they are really nice, especially with the widescreen mapping. Either way you can't go wrong though.

Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:59 pm

I've tried some of the Hanvon tablets with good results. Unfortunately I've never been too skilled at using them. Still, it's nice to have the option.

News Credits: 2 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:46 pm

Intuos3 ftw. Its the best by far.

Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:53 pm

Okay, so my comp setup is 2 widescreen monitors. Would a tablet be able to work on only the second monitor? I don't want it to try to map all the way across both screens, and I'd prefer it on the secondary screen which is where I keep my graphic apps.