Wacom Intuos3 4 x 6-Inch Wide Format Pen Tablet (PTZ431W)
by Wacom
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Wacom Intuos3 4 x 6-Inch Wide Format Pen Tablet (PTZ431W)
Customer Review: A designer's perspective
Summary: 4 Stars
Good: feels very solid, sensitive, easy to use
Bad: wonky clicking; when clicking the pointer on screen will sometimes shake
I am a graphic designer who designs on two screens (1024x768 and the second one is probably around 1440x900) and use Photoshop and Flash on a daily basis. Before the intuos3 I used a dying 10 year old tablet which made transitioning from a mouse to a tablet very slow and difficult (it failed to register in certain areas of my tablet). My company finally bought me the intuos3 as a replacement after many complaints. I have now been a proud owner of this tablet for one month.
As a designer, I can say that this has served me very well. My decision to buy an intuos3 4x6 wacom tablet were due to two reasons: for a speedier process while maintaining high accuracy and precision of movement - all of which this tablet has met in expectations (though the latter to a lesser degree). The smaller 4x6 active area requires smaller movements to move across the screen - resulting in a faster workflow. I find that much of my time in production work for preparing photo assets has been cut in half, if not more with the use of this tablet.
My only real complaint with this tablet is that clicking provides some difficulty, especially when accuracy down to the last pixel is necessary. For example, sometimes a tap on the tablet will register as two clicks rather than one. This can become a real drag when organizing folders, dragging files from one place to another. I am constantly creating copies of files because of the way this tablet registers my "clicks." You need a very steady hand in order to complete all the tasks that a mouse can do (even then, mistakes are bound to happen).
As for the mouse that comes with the tablet, I do not care much for it. Since it only registers on the surface of the tablet, I find its movement to be limiting (if I use a mouse, i want to be able to make wider movements and not be limited to the space of the tablet - especially one that is as small as 4x6). Instead, I find it much more satisfying to use the stylus as a full replacement to the mouse.
For those that are still hesitant on whether or not you should buy a tablet instead of a mouse, the single fact that that you are using your fine motor skills (using your fingers to move the stylus on a tablet) rather than wrist movements (using the mouse) should be the greatest reason for buying a tablet (think of the accuracy of writing normally as opposed to gripping a pen with all your fingers and only using your wrist to write - that's the difference). Using the tablet means enjoying higher accuracy and a faster workflow, especially when using a high quality tablet such as this one.
Customer Review: Not my best Wacom experience
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this with the intention of using the mouse daily and the pen with less frequency, and that's held true so far. I use it with my laptop at home, and I have an older Wacom tablet for my PC at work.
Mouse:
If I had tried out the mouse first, I would have passed on it. Its paint coating started to chip off the sides after about a month of use, but more importantly, I find it ergonomically awkward. The settings for its speed/acceleration seem to make a big jump from one setting to the next, so it always feels either sluggish or out of control. Even the fact that the tablet is so much thicker than the average mouse pad throws me off and my wrist always seems a bit tense.
Pen:
I wrote down my office tablet's settings and duplicated them. While there are bound to be differences since it is an older tablet, an older driver, and I'm moving from a PC to a Mac, the exact same settings feel alarmingly different from one tablet to the other. I had to do a lot of guessing and checking over weeks of working to approximate the same settings to which I was already accustomed.
Tablet:
Design-wise, this is gorgeous, and the downward slope on the front edge is a bit more comfortable than those I've used in the past. I thought that the programable hot buttons were a great addition until I started to use the tablet; my left hand is busy picking out keyboard shortcuts, and my right is drawing, so those buttons just fall by the wayside. I've spoken to one colleague who swears by them, but aside from that individual, my thoughts are usually echoed back to me: they seemed like such a great idea, but I just don't use them.
Overall:
I still think that Wacom makes great products, and I ordinarily have glowing experiences with them. I dislike the mouse. The pen is very comfortable, but it surprised me how much trouble I experienced migrating from one tablet to another.
Customer Review: I love it
Summary: 5 Stars
Wacom Intuos 3 4x6"
There's already so much written about this, so I will just say a few things about it.
Takes a little getting used to, but got the hang of it after about an hour or two. I don't use the mouse that came with it. The mouse must be used on the tablet and 4x6 is a little too small for a mouse. That's ok, I didn't buy it for the mouse.
I spent so much time worrying if 4x6 would be big enough. I have a wide screen monitor, and I thought I should probably get a tablet with the same proportions, but the 6x11 is over $300. I didn't know if I should spend so much on something I didn't know if I would even like. Turns out 4x6 is just fine. I am glad I did not get a larger one. A larger one would just mean having to move my arm around more to reach different parts of the screen and it would be less portable.
I wish they would say somewhere a little more prominently that the drawing pad it SUPPOSED to only be attached along the top edge to make it easier to replace once it gets worn. I saw the bottom corners of mine were sticking up slightly, and was so disappointed thinking that I would have to return it. But I looked on the wacom web site and it says it is supposed to be like that. They say it's to make it easier to replace.
Only things I would like different are having a 3rd button on the pen. I would also like to be able to adjust how close you need to put the pen to the tablet before the cursor starts moving. They say it's 1/4" in the instructions, mine is about 1/2" and that's a little too much. But I haven't been able to find any place to adjust it. I also wish the cord could be unplugged from the tablet. I think the Bamboo tablets do this, but not the Intuos.
I am giving this 5 stars because it works so well and feels well made.
Customer Review: Excellent!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my 16 year old son, an aspiring conceptual artist, for Christmas. I was concerned that it would be to hard to use, but was wrong. He said and I quote "it's easier than drawing."
Setup was a snap. It came with Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Corel Painter Essentials 3. I could not install Corel Painter 3 as it required 89 gig of hard drive space. My (older) computer has a 150 gig hd, but only 49 gig available. So, I will need to delete unused programs to make room. A pure drawing program would have been nice.
My son is a computere user, not a computer geek. So, I was impressed how well he is doing after only a few hours. The size of this tablet was suitable for his immediate needs. If he needs the bigger one someday, he can buy it himself.
ADDED Jan 22, 2009. After a year, my now 17 year old son uses this tablet a lot more than I expected. The more he uses it the more he understands how to use more of the features the software has to offer. He also spends a lot of time on Utube looking at clips of other artists drawing on tablets using similar software and tries to emulate them.
I have not moved this to another computer. The only options right no are computers with Vista, and he has used and hates Windows Vista, so, maybe after Windows 7 comes out, or I upgrade my wife's computer will he get to use all the software offered.
This is probably one of the best presents I gotten him over the past few years. The size is perfect for him too.
I need to raise the rating to 5 STARS. I really underestimated the power and ease of use of this product.
Customer Review: Great for Students
Summary: 5 Stars
The 4x6 Intuos3 is a great device for those starting a college curriculum in graphic design or digital photography. It is easy to set up, and very easy to figure out. The pen is extraordinarily comfortable and heavy enough to feel like a real pen/pencil/brush depending on what you are used to. For me, the active area (light gray rectangle in the photo) is too small, but I am used to working on on paper sizes of at least 24x36. So there was some adaption time. The active area maps to any screen size easily. I use this device on a 12.1 inch widescreen (aspect ratio of 16:10) and a 19 inch screen (4:3) and it maps instantly.
The device is built very well. The tablet is very solid, the pen is as well. The mouse, however, is too light and incredibly square as well as being tied to the active area on the tablet. But as so many have said before, you aren't buying this for the mouse.
The price is the singular set back. It is not a cheap device but that is more than likely due to the included software. Mine came with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Windows) and Photoshop Elements 4 (Mac) each being $80 or more retail. The software CD also has a striped version of Nik's Color Efex plug-ins for Photoshop. The problem with this software inclusion is that most people buying this product have the big-boy version of Adobe's Photoshop in some way. A software-free version of this hardware should be made available.
Either way, this is a fantastic peripheral.