The Wacom Intuos4 is coming :)

[David Fairfield]

I have a tablet, but even when I'm drawing, I keep reverting to the mouse. I'd like to get more use out of it.

What sorts of tasks do you find these are most useful for?

Thanks!
Dave

[Steve Clarkson]

David, I basically threw my mouse away......I use my tablet exclusively now. It's just alot faster and more precise....especially when tracing.

[Dan Hintz]

Steve, if you weren't in on the flame polisher group buy, contact Jack... I believe he intended to order a few extras for sale on eBay (and they were ordered with a 120V input). It may not have the mystique of being previously owned by Frank, but you can always lie to people about it...



David, I haven't had one for quite some time, but when I did I used it mostly for natural media projects. They work well for masking jobs where the mask isn't a simple square (like removing background from wind-blown hair), applying custom vignettes, etc. I think you'll find more uses for them as you play, but only if you do a lot of image editing. If your game is a lot of awards with little more than text, vector files, etc. you may not see much return on investment. YMMV...

[Jacob Hebert]

It's cool and all, but I love my Wireless Bluetooth Wacom Graphire. It and I go a long way.

[Dee Gallo]

I bought a small Wacom Graphire (cheap on ebay -$40) to see what it's like and took Steve's advice to just use the pen exclusively to get used to it. It's fine so far, but how do you blow up and reduce the page view with it?

On my mouse, I use the wheel. This one has 2 buttons, but they are for scrolling and other commands. It also has a wireless mouse, so for page view, I've had to resort to the mouse... once it's in my hand, I have to remember to get rid of it!

Thanks, dee

[Steve Clarkson]

Dee,

My tablet has four buttons and a slider on each side and I can program them to respresent any keystroke I want......the slider is my zoom in/out. Plus the pen has two buttons which are what you normally use the two buttons on a mouse for.

[Frank Corker]

I'll swop you a brand new 5 button mouse for your tablet Steve and I'll throw in a picture of my flame polisher!

[Steve Clarkson]

I'll swop you a brand new 5 button mouse for your tablet Steve and I'll throw in a picture of my flame polisher!

I already have a picture of your flame polisher......actually, I engraved it on a HD Granite tile last week.........

[Dan Hintz]

Prices may not be as bad as originally listed. Someone did a review of the 6x9 on Amazon, and after the review was posted Amazon's bots listed the price as $349. So:

Four models will be introduced (and expect some sticker shock here, boys and girls):
* 4 x 6 inch small for $299
* 6 x 9 inch medium for $479 (listed as $349 on Amazon)
* 8 x 13 inch large for $999
* 12 x 19 extra large for $649

Let's see if any of the other prices drop...

Here's a review:

The Vista drivers for this version are much more stable than the ones for the Intuos3. With my Intuos3 I am constantly getting error messages and having to restart the computer. Even though I love the device, I don’t use it as much as I would like because the driver situation gets so frustrating. I’ve been using the Intuos4 all day and have not had one single problem with the driver. It was easy to install and has worked pretty much flawlessly. The only issue I had was with the eraser not working in Photoshop. After doing some searches on the internet I found out that this is related to a conflict when more than one tablet is installed. The solution was to unplug the tablet, use the “Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility” to delete all of my preference files, and then plug the tablet back and and restart Photoshop. Now it works like a charm.


One of my favorite new features of this version is the pen base. Whoever designed it was a genius. When you turn the base the bottom comes out and all the pen nibs are stored in there. It’s really brilliant. Another neat thing about it is that there is a small metal ring with a notch in it with the nibs. You use the ring to grip the nib when you want to remove it from the pen. It works really well on most of the nibs and makes it much, much easier to change the nibs. The only nib it doesn’t really work with is the black and white “flex” nib. Because the tip of that nib is hollow it is really difficult to grip it with the ring, or anything else for that matter.


In this model the shortcut buttons are all on one side and the drivers allow you to set the orientation for right or left handed use. There are a lot of buttons, eight to be exact. Next to the buttons is an LED display showing what the buttons do. I’m always forgetting what the buttons do on my old tablet, so I can definitely appreciate this. You can customize the display, too. When you set it to a keystroke you can name it and the name will then be displayed next to the button. It’s pretty cool. When you switch between applications the buttons change instantly to show you the custom settings for the specific application.


There is also a “touch ring” that allows you to scroll or cycle through options. It can hold four settings. You click the button in the center of the ring to toggle through your settings. I haven’t used this feature much, but I’m sure it will be useful.


The tablet is very sensitive. I’m not a professional graphics designer, so I can’t give a lot of details on this aspect, but it is definitely more sensitive than my old tablet.


At the time I am writing this the Intuos4 website hasn’t been setup. As a result I am unable to download the bundled software, so I can’t review that yet.


I’ve never really used the mouse that came with my old tablet because I don’t like the feel of it. The mouse with this one has the same feeling, so I won’t be using it either. It is very nicely made, though.



Overall I am very happy with the Intuos4. It is definitely worth upgrading to the new tablet. You won’t be disappointed.

[Dan Hintz]

NEW PRICING!

These prices are much better than originally mentioned...

Four models will be introduced:
* 4 x 6 inch small for $229 (originally $299)
* 6 x 9 inch medium for $349 (originally $479)
* 8 x 13 inch large for $469 (originally $999)
* 12 x 19 extra large for $789 (originally $649, though this price was always considered an error)

And the bonus? Wacom lists the 8x13 model for $369 on their site in what is sure to be yet another pricing mistake. I placed an order for it in the hopes I get one, but I'm willing to bet the order will be canceled within the next day or two.

[George Brown]

And the bonus? Wacom lists the 8x13 model for $369 on their site in what is sure to be yet another pricing mistake. I placed an order for it in the hopes I get one, but I'm willing to bet the order will be canceled within the next day or two.

Price on the site has already been changed, let us know if they actually honor your $369 price???

[Dan Hintz]

Price on the site has already been changed, let us know if they actually honor your $369 price???

I noticed earlier this morning they had also raised the price of the medium one from $349 to $369, same as the large's incorrect price. Me thinks someone fat-fingered the keyboard when typing those in.

I have my fingers crossed the honor it, but if they don't no harm, no foul. I've read that with mistakes like that they offer a 10% off coupon to those who had their orders canceled. Not as big a savings, but may still make it worth purchasing the large.

The upgrade from Intuos3 to Intuos4 is relatively minor (2048 pressure levels compared to 1024 on the Intuos3, higher tip sensitivity at lower pressure levels, etc.), so I wouldn't suggest anyone needs to "upgrade" their Intuos3... but it feels good to pick up the latest model of anything when you start from nothing.

[Dan Hintz]

Man, this thing didn't exist in the public eye two weeks ago, now we have pricing, PC Magazine has done a review ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343760,00.asp )... I hope Corel cranks out X5 as quickly!

[Glenn Clabo]

I just bought the Intuos3 6 x 8-Inch for $256.00 plus a $30.00 rebate the end of Feb. Nice to have the newest...but $226.00 for one step back isn't all bad. AND the thing is great!

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It's fine so far, but how do you blow up and reduce the page view with it?
On my mouse, I use the wheel. This one has 2 buttons, but they are for scrolling and other commands. It also has a wireless mouse, so for page view, I've had to resort to the mouse...

This is the same frustration I have with my small 4x5 Wacom. I use the scroll wheel to zoom in/out extensively in many programs. The tablet has a wheel, so I have to remember to raise the pen up out of range and then reach up to the wheel to zoom in/out. This slows me down quite a bit compared to using the wheel mouse. I have even got myself into a habit of zooming out, moving the pointer a smidge and then zooming back in just because it's faster then moving the pointer to a scroll bar and scrolling the image to where I need it.

I like using my pen, but if I have to do a lot of zooming or moving about on the screen, I put the pen up and use the mouse.