Tablet Questions
 

I was actually looking in to getting one for myself but actually know quite little about them. Any suggestions on things to look for in it and "size matters" jokes aside what size should I be looking for? Desk space is not an issue but cost might be...however if a small drawing space is useless I'll suck it up for the larger size. Suggestions on specific models are always welcome as well but it'd have to be Mac OS compatable.

What's your budget? Take your budget and buy the biggest one possible. That's my suggestion ;)

:p

I noticed they have things like pressure levels and movement resolution...how important is that because some seem to have more than others...so if I was going to spend "X" dollars is it better to get a larger one that has worse resolution or go smaller with more quality?

Face it, if you buy a 5x4" tablet, your wrist will probably start to hurt after six months to a year of usage, especially if you use it improperly. On top of that, the small drawing area will make it difficult to create long lines the way you want them to.

Buy a Wacom. I've heard several stories where tablets of other brands have stopped to work in one way or another. Wacoms are durable, but they tend to come with a hefty price tag. Also, if you really can't get away from flipping the canvas when drawing normally on sheets of paper, you might want to look into buying a Cintiq. Cintiqs have built-in LCD screens that you can draw directly on, so you really see the image in relation. Very cool, but the downsides are the extremely hefty price, plus lack of pen tilting features.

The best tablet, in my opinion, is a Wacom Intuos (1, 2, 3), in the 6x8" or 9x12" range. I'm sure you could find unused ones on Ebay, but you'd still need to be willing to spend, say $300 to $400 usd to get a nice one. The retail price for a 9x12" Intuos 3 is $450 USD on http://www.wacom.com

Nothing wrong with Graphires either. I haven't tried them myself, but I've heard they're like Intuos, with not much of a noticable difference in pressure levels (512 instead of 1024), but they lack pen tilting.

Thanks Chruser that was really what I was looking for. I was comparing a Intuos and a Graphire mostly because those were the ones that I saw for sale at first but then I saw a host of other, cheaper brands (like Aiptek)...I suppose you get what you pay for though.

Didn't get to see a Cintiq but I'm taking a look now.

I wont advertise for anyone as Im not sure on the rules regarding it but there is a site I found that sells those tablets for less than what you posted due to academic discounts if you're in school still. (the 9x12 Intuos sells for $375 usd it seems at this place)

Anyways thanks again.

Feel free to post the link if you like.

About the Cintiqs, I would honestly consider myself insane if I bought one of them for private usage. I'd much rather buy a "much cheaper" Intuos of large dimension, as I really enjoy the pen tilting features of the Intuos pads. And I just have this gut feeling that mashing an almost impervious, high-density plastic pen tip onto a display roughly 10 times as expensive as the intuos tablet just isn't a good idea.

Okay, fine, if you have the money and don't feel bad about plowing it off into the depths of oblivion, then go ahead. I doubt you will regret it then, even if it would break. :P

It takes some time to get used to any tablet, meaning that even if you have drawing/painting skills now, it will probably take you at least 6 months until you really start to get the hang of it. I recall my first week being an absolute nightmare, because I just couldn't figure out all the "features", that seem really basic now.

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/

You need to provide them proof that you're involved with academics still but not a big deal (I don't know if its limited to people in the US or not though)

Heh if I was made of money or had unlimited resources I wouldn't even be posting asking about this ;)

You make a good point though about LCD screens as they tend to be fragile. I'll probably check out the Intuos and see how that is.

Hey man I got one question abut that site. How are you supposed to proove you're still a student to them?

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ge...9bb254c473352b

Thats the link to show what you'd need to provide them with depending on what your connection with the academic institution is. Pretty much the standard thing most places that want proof of your enrollment nothing weird.