Which Wacom?

[james_tye1]

<p>I hope this is in the right category...</p>

<p>It's about time I bought a Wacom. I've managed for years with a mouse and am quite quick with it but I'm pretty sure after getting to grips with a tablet I'll wonder why I hadn't got one years ago.</p>

<p>Can anyone recommend one? Which model and which size? I don't do high-end retouching but do shoot professionally and have a fairly heavy work-flow. I mostly use LR but also PS. My budget is quite big, I might as well get a good one.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

[howard_m]

<p>You can find endless prior threads on this but the bottom line is that if you're doing photography, *most* people prefer the small size which reduces arm/elbow movement and lets you concentrate on wrist/finger movements. Same thinking applies to how big the unit is and where you're going to place it (lap or table). Then there is the cheaper line (previously called Bamboo) and the Pro line. More resolution etc etc.</p>

<p>I originally got a Pro Medium Intuos 3. Sold it and got a small Pro4</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>It's probably very much a matter of personal preference; I've got one of the cheaper A5-sized ones, and use it only to create more complicated masks basically (and in drawing software). All other things, the mouse works just as fine. Since I had a tablet before, I knew I would use it little, so spending as little as possible for it made most sense.<br>

So my recommendation is to first try if you really like using it - spend little to get a simple one and see how you get on. Not all people love using tablets, and I know people doing heavy retouching (high end enough to get paid for it) who tried, and went back to the mouse. </p>

[EricM]

<p>I have the Intuos 5 Pro Medium. It's fantastic but the only one I've owned and can't compare it to anything. If you're mostly doing Lr, you're probably fastest with keyboard/mouse and shortcuts. Tabs are more for Ps tools for retouching and masking etc.<br>

<br>

And you might want to try a Surface Pro 4 as the pen/stylus is getting great reviews as a drawing tablet.</p>

[richsimmons]

<p>I have an Intuos Pen and Touch Medium(formally Bamboo, formally Graphire family). I've used Wacom's for over 15 years. I've only had three, they're made very well. My Graphire 3 lasted about 10 years. Still works, I just wanted a bigger tablet. The medium fits well in my bag, but I just looked at the website and it seems like they don't make the medium in the lower end anymore. But using the Pro line, you get tilting capabilities, which is handy. Active area is 8.8 x 5.5 inches. But if money is no object and you have a big desk, I'd go with the Intuos Pro large. Active area with pen is 12.8 x 8.0 in.<br>

Just for giggles, I bought a <a href="https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=108&cp_id=10841&cs_id=1084102&p_id=6814&seq=1&format=2">Monoprice</a> 10 x 6.5 inch that I picked up for less than $50. Works much better than expected and is really not a bad tablet.<br /></p>

[PaulCoen]

<p>B&H just posted a good deal on Pro 5 Medium - I've got the previous Intuos 5 Small, which has been great for touchup work. I do sometimes wish it was a little bigger. Not enough to replace it - I'd rather put the money towards a Benq SW2700PT monitor since the Small is good enough (I got it as a refurb through Adorama before Wacom relaunched the old Intuos line as the Intuos Pro). <br /><br />It's hard to go wrong with the Intuos Pro line. If you get one, spend some time rotating through the pen nibs to see which one you like best. I ended up settling on the "felt tip" (light grey) nibs for touch-up work - they offer a little more friction/resistance than the standard black nib and some of the others.</p>

[owen_omeara]

<p>I am a photographer and I have and love the Intros 5. It is a medium size.</p>

<p>-O</p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>I'm with William on this. I have a Wacom Bamboo - cheaper and smaller and now discontinued. I only use it for intricate editing tasks, for which is it very good, but I would hate for it replace my regular mouse. Too annoying by half. So I suggest you don't spend too much to start, as they are an acquired taste. I don't think it is guaranteed at all that you'll "wonder why I hadn't got one years ago."</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>A 6"x 8" is about ideal. Any smaller and you have trouble positioning the cursor on the screen. Any larger and it takes an whole desktop.</p>

<p>I've had a table for years, but used it mostly for audio editing. At the moment, my computer won't recognize the USB connection for the tablet. I really don't miss it.</p>

[michael_spencer3]

<p>Years ago when in the market for my tablet, I found many references (for artists) using the tablets that described how the motion of using the pen would involve the whole arm. My very slight previous attempts at art work with pencil, charcoal and so forth matched these descriptions so I took notice of these comments.<br>

I purchased a medium sized tablet, a little larger than 8x10. I found right away that the pen/tablet combination was most useful and comfortable when using the "whole arm" to maneuver, not just using the pen held and manipulated as a pencil. However, my main use of the tablet was to clean up very old slides and negatives that were damaged by dust, scratches, and fungus. So a whole lot of my actual work with the tablet was using the pen as a pencil "pointer" to jab at the little white dust spots. Very hard on the fingers when you do this for long periods. <br>

The first couple of years I swore that I should have gotten the smaller sized tablet; but now I find the medium size more comfortable. It took a long time to work in the "whole arm" movement when scrolling and so forth, but I do that now and its very natural. And the tablet size seems well matched to my images which are 3k x 4k or more (6mb up to 24mb). When zoomed in to see the detail there can be quite a lot of scrolling around. I still have to go after the dust and scratches one by one and that is still hard on the fingers; but the mouse is even harder!. So I find the tablet works really well in this particular task. For other photofinishing tasks, such as dealing with Photoshop layers, and making adjustments and so forth, I keep coming back to the mouse. I am pretty adept at mouse movements. Basically, I keep a mouse pad right on top of the tablet so I can switch back and forth pretty rapidly.<br>

Keep in mind as the tablets get larger you will run out of real estate on your desk top and it will become more unwieldy to use.<br>

So if your work load is similar to mine, my recommendation would be to get a tablet with a working area not less than around 8 inches by 6 inches, but not much more than that. The actual tablet will be larger, perhaps 13 inches by 9 inches. Balance the larger work area which is good, with the larger overall tablet size which will get hard to use on your desk top.</p>