Wacom Intuos3 6 x 8-Inch Pen Tablet
by Wacom
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Wacom Intuos3 6 x 8-Inch Pen Tablet
Customer Review: Once you go Wacom, you never go back
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a Wacom devotee since 1999, where I first saw them in use by other designers at my first dot.com job. Since then, I have owned Wacom products from the Intuos 1, 2, and 3 lines in various sizes and can recommend the 6x8 Intuos 2 without reservation.
Some people hate the Wacom and quickly give up in frustration, but the learning curve is very shallow and well worth the small effort in learning how to use it. All it takes is an hour or less of practice to get used to the pointing system. Your reward is much finer control, speed, and precision than can ever be achieved by using a mouse. Your fingers are much more dexterous than your wrist. Imagine holding a pen and trying to draw with it vs holding a rock. A pen offers greater precision and comfort. I cannot use Illustrator and Photoshop without my Wacom.
Ever since using the Wacom, I have never gone back to a mouse, even for everyday non-design use. I've remapped my Wacom so I can place the keyboard on the top half of the tablet, then keep the pen in my hand all day. My hand never has to travel more than a few inches from the keyboard, making typing and penning very quick. With the flick of the wrist and minimal hand movement, I can put my cursor over any part of my screen. This contrasts with mousing, where you have to take one hand off the keyboard completely, move it about a foot, move the mouse, then move the hand back to the keyboard to type. Repeated thousands of times a day, this adds up in time and increased shoulder muscle strain, which can be a problem for some people.
Additionally, the 6x8 is the perfect size for people with cramped or small desks. The 9x12 is too large, and the 4x6 is too small. The 6x8 is also small enough to be carried around to clients if you need to work remotely.
Now, a few caveats
CONS:
- As far as the two sets of side buttons are concerned, I've disabled them because they are distracting.
- mouse sort of defeats the purpose of having a pen system, but still handy to have around for the klutzes in your office who can't use the pen.
- the thick overlay is utterly useless for putting anything under, like photographs and drawings to trace. It is completely opaque and nothing can be seen through it. It is also very difficult to lift up, as there is no thumb notch. Previous Wacoms had a clear overlay and a notch.
But that's about it. The Wacom really sells itself. It's a fantastic product that is unrivaled. There are cheaper products on the market, but don't waste your money on them. The Wacom is attractive and build quality is excellent.
Customer Review: Excellent quality and an invaluable tool
Summary: 5 Stars
I spend about 10 hours a day working in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and other design related programs including 3D Studio Max. I've been using a Wacom tablet for about six years now, and I love it. It would be impossible for me to create the designs and illustrations that I do without my Wacom. As an artist and designer, I used traditional mediums for years, and then spent another couple of years trying to figure out how to use a mouse in a way that would permit me to create quality images and designs on the computer quickly and in a way that resembled traditional methods. The Wacom tablet has been my solution and the solution of dozens of my colleagues. I use the old Intuos at home, and I use the Intuos 3 at work. The new Intuos features a USB connection that permits hot-swappable, on-the-go design. Also, the new Intuos pens are much more comfortable to hold that the old plastic pens because of the rubber coated grip. The tip on the pen seem much more "springy" and responsive. The pressure sensitivity is amazing and allows me the complete control over the virtual medium that I am handling (airbrush, pencil, ink, paint, etc). Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash are all designed to work with the pressure sensitive pens, and the level of control is amazing. Photoshop's new custom brush palette, combined with the Wacom tablet, permit me to create custom brushes to simulate the appearance of color pencil, pastels, and chalk in such a realistic manner that it's difficult to discern what is real and what is digital. Both of the tablets I own have the 6x8 drawing surface, which I find to be an adequate size for me to accomplish all of my design-work and illustrations. It also is a convenient size to fit into my laptop bag (outer dimensions are about 10"x13"). I absolutely love my Wacom, and I'm ashamed that I didn't place a review for this superior product before now. Several of my coworkers and friends have purchased less expensive versions from competitors, but have regretted the purchase and have switched to Wacom. I was helping a coworker select a Wacom tablet for her desk this morning (as a replacement for another brand) when I decided to write this review for the Wacom tablet. Bottom line for the Wacom 6x8: convenient size, excellent pressure sensitivity, durable construction, excellent value for the price. I would consider this a must-have for any serious digital illustrator or designer.Customer Review: Another raving review!
Summary: 4 Stars
Having recently delved in to graphic design and web cartooning, I originally purchased a used Graphire via the New and Used area of Amazon.com. I was impressed with how it interfaced with photoshop and had the ease of use that my sketching pencils did when using regular paper. The only thing that irritated me was the fact that often the line appeared to "wobble", and so I was spending a great deal of time going back to clean up areas where it didn't look clean.
Upon misplacing the Graphire during a move and looking a deadline in the face, I rushed out and purchased the Intuos3 as an upgrade, thinking that in the very least I might have tighter control being its first owner. Wow. Not only is the control tighter, it responds to my movements better, it is FAR more pressure sensitive than the Graphire was, and the speed with which I finish my projects is amazing. What took me 5 hours on the Graphire now takes me only 3 now that I don't have to go back and clean up meandering lines! On top of that I'm finding I can add more shading an detail to what I'm drawing and get more in depth with what I'm working on than with the Graphire. Had I known there would've been such a difference in what I produced, I most likely would've skipped the Graphire and gone straight to the Intuos3.
There are only 2 things that bug me thus far. One is the sudden development of a "dead" area on one side of the pad where the pen seems to skip over the screen and veer off at odd angles. So far I have compensated by pulling the picture away from that spot in Photoshop and continuing to work, but this could grow to be a pain in the butt in the future. The other is that while they included extra pen tips, a lack of a place to store them without losing them is somewhat irritating. Right now I keep them in the well of the pen holder and lay the pen sideways. However, there is often mysterious feline intervention with objects in my house and I worry the spare pen tips will disappear when the holder is knocked off my workspace.
Aside from those two things (and the dead area might be remedied by a restart of photoshop, which I have not tried yet) I love this piece of equipment and what it has allowed me to do. My work looks a lot more professional and is finished in record time, and I do owe it entirely to the quality of the equipment I am working with.
Customer Review: Awesome! Home run on this product
Summary: 5 Stars
I went down to local electronics chain to look for a tablet device. I design my own websites and am horrible at drawing. Figured on tracing outlines and sketches. I thought at first the $300 range was too much for this "toy", so got a Bamboo model to get a feel for it. Store said they will trade in if I change mind. Good.
Took it home, had fun. I don't use the mouse. Boring. Already have a laser mouse. Tablet too small, buttons hard to use. Liked the absolute positioning feature though. That was nice. It piqued my curiousity, stretched my mind a bit, made me think, "Hmm, how bout the bigger one?"
Went back to store, splurged on 6x8. (Sure, alright, "I can justify it with business expense", I thought to myself) Took it home. Woaaaahh. Cool. Much better size. 6x8 doesn't fall off your lap and small enough not to hog my lap or be bulky either. You have to try it to believe it. Much better control and it's like using my pencil or pen.
(Then I loaded the software )Customizing buttons for each application is sooo handy. Wow. I design printed circuit boards, and the buttons are a real kick for that. MS Paint actually becomes useful instead of a dorky box drawing tool!
My advice after using it today:
1) I like the felt nib and the springy plastic one. The rest..well..they insult the product.
2) Install the software! Get lastest drivers from site.
3) Buy this before you buy photoshop. Use the upgrade offers. Tablet pays for itself.
4) Set up the buttons using the tablet drive/software.
Open your programs one by one, select it in the software and customize your buttons for each program. MUCH more convenient and intuitive. IE and Opera fly. It's like having a touch screen except your screen doesn't get dirty.
5) Make one of the buttons an UNDO feature. Now you can redraw the same line until you get it right :) I'm a halfway decent sketcher because of it.
6) Make sure you set up one button for Popup menus for added functionality.
7) Tell your friends. They'll love you for it and you'll earn kudos for the great find :)
I haven't gotten into the Painting software yet. Have fun!
Customer Review: Use with powerpoint
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the Tablet primarily for use with powerpoint talks and presentations that I give. I have had it for only a short time but so far it has been a very valuable addition. It is easy to draw on slides for emphasis or for further explanations. Instead of switching between the computer projector and a while board you can just bring up a blank slide and scribble away. A potential negative here is that none of your scribbles and jottings are saved ( or atleast I haven't seen a way to save them) - this may be a good thing, though, since it means that you presenation retains its original form.
On the Wacom web site you can navigate to a page of tips and hints. There is a screen shot of a PPT presentation that shows that when you bring up the pen (Cntrl-P) during a presentation you have several options - ball point, highlighter, felt tip. With Office XP only the pen option showed. I called Wacom support to ask about this. The very helpful and friendly person at the other end couldn't figure out where the screen shot was actually from. She took my email and responded later in the day that the screen shot was with Office 2003. So I used that answer as a motivation to finally load up Office 2003 and there were the options!
I also just got MS OneNote and it looks like the tablet will be a great adjunct for its use with the one drawback that you need a lot of desk space. I'd recommend that if PPT or OneNote or similar writing tasks are your primary use for the tablet, the one that is a size down from 6 x 8 could be adequate and take up a lot less real estate.
I discovered that if you press in the top part of the rocker switch on the Intuos pen you can "air write", i.e. you can write with the pen above the tablet - no need to touch it. Not sure how this would be useful, but there it is.
Finally, I have given this 4 stars rather than 5 since I have only used the device for PPT and not yet for photoshop work i also do. So I am commenting on only a small fraction of its capabilties. With this proviso, though, it is great.