Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch
by Wacom, Inc
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List Price: Our Price: $64.95 You Save: $35.00 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $54.90 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch
Customer Review: Brought out the artist in me.
Summary: 5 Stars
Around 1996, I bought a 12" Wacom tablet and Painter software for my sister so she could draw stuff I needed for my software products and web site. The tablet connected via ADB to a PowerPC Mac she had at the time. That stuff cost a fortune, too. I tried it a few times and it really couldn't keep up tracking my writing or silly doodling. I was really impressed that she could work with the limitations of the system and produce cool artwork.
Fast forward to Christmas, 2009. I have been learning to draw in fits and starts, and I always felt I had a good eye for what would look great, but no ability to execute it other than try to convey it to an artist and see what comes out. My grandmother asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I picked out this Pen & Touch tablet. A couple weeks later and $90 for Photoshop Elements, and I'm having lots of fun drawing pictures that are nearly as good as what I was paying the artist for. I'll still have him do some work, but I'll be able to communicate what I want better by concrete example than by trying to describe it.
The coolest thing about this tablet though, is that my buddy's 5-year old daughter loves my drawing and gives me all sorts of requests that are quickly improving my skills. I'll never be a Picasso, but I'm good enough to impress a 5-year old!
I would highly recommend this particular tablet as an inexpensive way to test the waters of drawing with a computer. More often than not, it's propped up on a padded couch arm while the MacBook Pro is on my lap and it works great. I bet it would be amazing if I used it on a table top!
Customer Review: good for pen features, bad for mouse
Summary: 2 Stars
PRO
Excellent in PS(when it works..see below) etc for visual editing. Beats a mouse hands down.
CON
Touch capabilities are terrible. The sensitivity and "feel" of this as a finger touchpad is not even close to even the cheapest laptop touchpad I've used. Not only do I have to use more strokes than I think I should to get the pointer from one side of the screen to the other(no matter how I have it configured), but I ALSO have to spend more time and effort zero'ing in on the icon/button..etc that I want to click one I have the cursor in the ballpark. In other words, it sucks for long distance motions, and it sucks for small precise motions.
Software. The last 2 driver updates have screwed up the pen functionality in photoshop. It works fine in windows, but not when i launch PS. Also, there are at least 2 different "settings managers" you have to locate and run to be able to modify your configuration. How about just one single management utility? Either integrate with windows control panel or don't...why both?
Service. I've seen the photoshop issue mentioned frequently in the wacom forums, and the support reps there are, at best, lukewarm and semi-competent at problem solving. The issue remains unresolved and they seem perfectly content with that.
Value...unfortunately, I think, in light of the cons, this thing was seriously overpriced for the features(the good ones) that it offers. I tried to justify the cost by using as a mouse replacement, but can't.
Wish I'd gone with the pen only model, and I wish it worked as advertised.
Customer Review: Was good until it started malfunctioning (a lot)
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this for Christmas a couple of years ago. I really really loved it. It was my best friend! :)
I used it every day for months until about 6 months ago. I had a problem with my pen. It wouldn't draw at all. So I got a new pen, and was happy again, using it every day until about 3 months ago. I was drawing, and I was trying to draw a horse's mane and tail, so I had to constantly pick up and put down the pen (repeatedly) like you do when you write something with a pencil, picking it up to cross a "T" or on to the next letter/word. I picked it up, still close enough so it knew the pen was there, but not touching the actual tablet, and it kept drawing. So it wouldn't stop drawing. No matter what I did. Then it stopped, and a week passed without it happening. Then it happened again, and it has never really stopped. Maybe for a moment or two but gone right back to it.
I'm devastated. I love this thing, but I don't know how to fix it. I've tried a new pen. I've tried to uninstall it and reinstall it, but it won't uninstall from my computer (there's no one thing to uninstall it with) and I've looked it up on Google and it has nothing. I've tried updating it from the website's updates drivers, but it won't work. Nothing will. Not even the good ol' restart on the computer.
Because of this, I won't be buying another Bamboo tablet. :(
I definitely would NOT recommend this item unless you only want it for a short period of time, or have the money to keep replacing the pens (would add up to just getting a new tablet).
Customer Review: Great tablet with a little ways to go
Summary: 4 Stars
I really like this tablet. I've had it a few days and have had the chance to do a little Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Illustrator work with it as well as general surfing with my Mac.
I haven't gotten too far into it but enough to say that I really like the device.
It works very well as a mouse alternative for me but I've always used a trackball so I would say that people that are used to a mouse may have a bigger problem getting used to it, but laptop people should love it! There's plenty of room and the pad is very responsive. I've found it a bit over sensitive at times and difficult to drag objects around the desktop or to and from folders so I will continue to have my trackball right next to it to reduce the frustration level if/when these things should happen.
The multitouch feature is great! I have an iPhone and always wanted this on my desktop Mac. I have a few graphic intense layouts to get to so I will explore more, but for now I can say buy it! Especially at this price.
I'd really love this thing if you were able to assign the buttons "app-specific gestures".
There are certain repetitive keystroke actions that I do all day in Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Illustrator...I would love to be able to program a keystroke into one of the 4 buttons and simply click on it. I'm able to do this with my trackball so I know that its possible.
All-in-all I really like this tablet, I'll be in love with it if they tweak it a bit.
Customer Review: Too sensitive, needs better software, but still better than a mouse (if you like touchpads)
Summary: 3 Stars
I like touchpads, especially Apple touchpads. I prefer the way they work vs a mouse or trackball, and I prefer my Bamboo Pen and Touch to my Kensington trackball. The tablet only gets 3 stars because it's too sensitive (-1 star) and there's been no software to adjust it (-1 star), which is problematic for a $100 device.
I bought the Bamboo Touch and Pen as trackball replacement. I chose it because it's 2-finger multi-touch and I wanted to know if the pen interface would work well with Internet white-boarding.
As a touchpad it is VERY sensitive - too much so. It's easy to do unintentional double-taps, and dragging things around the desktop or in a document without accidentally dropping them requires concentration, which is distracting from the work at hand. Working on my MacBook Pro's non-glass touchpad is much easier, so I've used it as a baseline reference for comparison.
The pen-interface is registered to your screen - Wacom makes a point of this in their intro video. Touching the pen to a specific spot on the pad will ALWAYS go to the associated specific spot on the screen, regardless of where your previous pen touch was. This is neither good nor bad, it just is. I'm not quite use to it yet, mostly from lack of practice, but the pen tablet is still better for Internet white-boarding than the trackball.
I see that WACOM has just released an updated driver and will get it installed. We'll see if that changes any of the above.