Tablet Choices

[EwanG]

OK, here's the deal...

I'd like to ideally get two tablets of the same make and model. One for home where I do most of my work, and one for at work that I could use over my lunch hour. I want the same make and model so I don't have to relearn what I'm doing every time I switch machines.

Right now my choices are:

1) E-bay auction that is selling the UC-Logic WP5540-TAB19 at $49/each with free US Postal Service Priority shipping (2-3 days)

2) Tiger Direct which is selling the Acecad Flair GT-504BU at $49.99/each and about $25 for second day shipping

3) Pick up one Wacom tablet now (probably the Graphire4 CTE440BCCS) at $99.99 plus tax, and then wait a month to afford another one

Guess the question comes down to:

Are the Wacom's THAT much better than the other two? If I got one of the others, do any of you have experience good/bad/otherwise with that company/model?

TIA,
Ewan

[Jake]

I've not had experience with either of those particular brands, but I've tried two other non-Wacom tablets and the Wacoms I've had have frankly blown them out of the water. A big thing is that Wacom have dominated the market for so long that a lot of software still only really supports their tablets; I could never get pressure sensitivity to work in anything but the supplied test app on the NISIS I tried, for instance. I've had friends who have had similar experiences, having to download patches or third-party driver hacks to get them usable in Photoshop and the like.

I seem to remember hearing that this is changing at least on the Windows desktop with MS' tablet API supporting a wider range of tablets, but I couldn't say with any degree of certainty - I've been a Wacom-only user for about five years now. :/

So yeah... in my personal experience, graphics tablets is one of those rare areas where it actually is worth paying the extra for the market leading brand.

[Rika-chan]

I've only had experience with Wacoms, so I might be a little biased, but go with the Wacom, even though it's more expensive. I've had one for four years now, and I haven't been very nice to it. (Mostly because it gets used sporatically, so I forget about it and drop it, or step on it, or spill tea on it, lol. I don't usually treat my stuff like that.) Even through all that abuse, it still works perfectly, and I've never had to replace it. Just my opinion.

[mugenjohncel]

I really do suggest you invest in Cintiq (Yes... it's wacom).

Lucy's Revenge was done on that and working directly on-screen really did save me time... not to mention paper and ink.

It may be a bit expesive at first but believe me It's definitelly worth it.

Reconditioned ones are also available.

[DaFool]

Bandwagon here
Wacom CTE-430. Couple of years now. It's tiny, but does the job flawlessly, pressure sensitivity and all. I don't have much space on my desk (or my apartment for that matter). Although the USB connection is pretty flimsy.

If I had more space and money, I would have gotten the bigger one.
In any case, I used to want to be totally paperless, but realized you can't really achieve the 'hand-drawn look' without actually drawing by hand. So its more useful for coloring, especially those tiny shadows.

[Zarcon]

I own a Wacom as well.
The smallest Graphire 2...yea, it's like, 2 generations out of production.
And you know what? Still works like a charm. I've been might cruel to it through the years, and it certainly shows physically...but mechanically it hasn't failed me and will continue to serve me well for a time to come.

[EwanG]

Well, the clincher is that I use dual displays at work, and only Wacom's evidently support that. So, I'll be dropping by Best Buy later on today.

Thanks for all the advice,
Ewan

[monele]

While I don't use it much, I also have a Wacom ^^;... I've also heard it's the best out there and it clearly proved to be good (though it's hard to say without any comparison I guess? ^^;...)

[Adorya]

Using a Wacom A3 since 2001 but the only thing I can do with is rough : I was never able to find the good parameters to make a single straight line without "tremble" effect, which has never appeared when I used pencil ^_^;
I know that reducing this can be done with training, but still is very frustrating when you zoom and still see some.

[Alessio]

Using a tinytinytiny Wacom A6 for colouring. Much better than drawing with a mouse. But outlines I still draw on paper and scan it.

[NetGenSuperstar]

Even though you've already decided...

I have no reason to recommend anything but Wacom. I've only used one other tablet brand before (Pablo, I think...I got it for $10 at Best Buy, a 90% discount because the packaging was severely damaged), but I really see no reason why you should choose something else in the first place. I normally don't just jump on the everybody-else-uses-it-so-I-should-too bandwagon without researching possible alternatives I may like more (hence my owning a Mac), but in this case...there's really no other way to go.

[DaFool]

http://www.wacom.com/companyinfo/index.cfm

I swear I saw wacom as one of the sponsors for an anime I was watching.

[EwanG]

OK, setup my Wacom pad today, and discovered that while the mouse uses relative positioning, the pen uses absolute positioning. That proved to be troublesome on my dual display as it meant I only had half of the tablet available for the pen, which made things incredibly difficult.

I've turned off the second display, and now the pen works just fine since I have enough room to move. I guess that means if I ever want to go back to using both displays I'll need a much (!) bigger tablet.

Alternately, I wish Wacom provided a way to say that when using the pen, it would only use one or the other display at a time, and you could hit one of the buttons on the tablet to switch.

One other thing I was able to confirm is that while it makes tracing possible, it still doesn't make it easy. I still shake/twitch too much. But I'm seeing what I can do for one example, and hope to post that on the development thread eventually.

FWIW,
Ewan

[NetGenSuperstar]

OK, setup my Wacom pad today, and discovered that while the mouse uses relative positioning, the pen uses absolute positioning. That proved to be troublesome on my dual display as it meant I only had half of the tablet available for the pen, which made things incredibly difficult.

You could always set the pen to use relative positioning. But I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of using the pen in the first place.

Sorry, if I had known you had a dual-display setup, I would have probably forseen that problem.

[Zarcon]

Oh, that's an easy fix.
Go into your tablet properties (Start Menu => All Programs => Wacom Tablet => Wacom Tablet Properties)
From there, select "Pen" from the "Tool" bar.
Click the "Mapping" tab.
Under the "Screen Area" dropbox, select monitor 1.

There you go. =)

If the properties layout isn't the same just poke around until you find it. XD