Graphire or Intuos?

[rbV5]

I'm looking for a little quality starter tablet for graphics work and for entering text. Is anyone familiar with these 2 Wacom tablets that can give me a little input? I use Photoshop/Illustrator in 2D and Maya/Max in 3D. I understand the technical differences, and the fact that the intuos supports the airbrush, but I'm leaning toward the Graphire now and purhaps purchasing the intuos 6x8 down the road. I guess what I'm asking is whether the Graphire is suitable for graphics work? Thanks in advance

 

[Shack70]

I am by no means a professionsal, but I have the Graphire and I love it. I use it mainly for making Counter-Strike Sprays. I use it with Photoshop and Paintshop. It's real easy to set up and works great. The pen takes some getting used to, but for drawing it beats a mouse hands down. I bought mine here on Anandtech forsale forum and paid $50. It retails for $100, so it was worth it for me. Buy it somewhere you can return it if you don't like it. I think I saw them a Walmart.

 

[rbV5]

Hey thanks BlackFlagg, thats what I'm looking for. It'll get handed down to the kids anyway when I get a new tablet (they get all the old stuff LOL), and I've always heard good things about Wacom, so I'm sure it will be quality. My main concern was whether half the levels of sensitivity would be suitable for good interaction in Photoshop, and whether the tablet size was sufficient for drawing. I'm used to small mouse movements as I've always prefered small pads.

 

[Raincity]

The Graphire is not POS. But your correct, the sensitivity levels were not not so hot in Illustrator. But then it was over a year ago when I tried it out on my friends box and only for a couple of hours. Wacom had put out a couple of driver updates so maybee the issue is fixed. I have the Intous 9/12 with the inking pen and airbrush. I have no complaints or issues with it at all. If you decide on a Intuos and want to save some bucks, get a refurbished one. Coolgraphicsstuff is a excellent online vendor and sells refurb units and sometimes has good sales on serial port only units.

Rain

 

[rbV5]

Raincity, thanks for the link! I've been checking Wacom direct for their refurbished units, but they list everything as "no products at this time"(even the new stuff). Yea, I was eyeballing the 9x12 and the airbrush would be great, but I think I'll hold off a little and use a smaller unit for now and upgrade later this fall/winter when I get serious about my graphic work(its gray and rainy all winter here in Oregon, gives me plenty of creativity time)

What got me started was Office XP's handwriting recognition, it works fabulous, and just trying it out with my mouse and writing in horrible cursive, it was 100% correct, even on words that were pretty bad(my mouse is real bad for writing).

Thanks for the input, your comments on Illustrator give me cause to reconsider, as I do use Illustrator for my vector decaling and Illustration (I mostly use my 2D applications as support tools for my 3D work, texturing and decaling however) , but those $59 refurbs look like a decent pricepoint, and it would be fine for the wifey and kidos I'm sure.

 

[Raincity]

The Intuos tablets has a preset tool strip right on the pad so can go to a different set of adjustments and feel settings right on the fly. The Graphire does not support this. The Graphire may be all that you need. I wonder how many of us use the stuff to its full capacity. I use Photoshop mainly as a tweaking and final editing tool and could probally get by with PH 5 LE for most of the stuff I do with PH. My main weapons of choice are Illustrator 9 and Deep Paint. I also use Bryce and World Builder for the 3d stuff. Im still saving up for Maya and Lightwave. I hear you on the winter weather in the Pacific Nortwest. I lived in a small town 20 miles north of Vancover, WA and remember the amount of rain in the winter. We do the indoor hybernation in the summer here in Vegas and stay indoors all summer in the AC.

Rain