WACOM Tablet

Personally I use the Graphire 3 4x5 it's small, but it works perfectly for me. I use tiny strokes in my arting. I don't feel like I need the uber sensitvity of the Intuos, though I wouldn't mind a larger tablet. I like my little G3. It's also the most affordable at $99.

Does the Graphire have all the photoshop sensitivity stuff? I kinda want that.

I use a 6x9 graphite. It mimics the sensitivity of actually drawing and works really well wtih photoshop. I got a refurbished one from newegg.com for 150. for christmas, a new one is about 300 i think. You can buy a 4x5 at best buy for 99 i believe, brand new.

My graphire works great in Photoshop. I have a hard time on a few of the brushes, but I just press a little harder and it works decently, but those are brushes I rarely use anyway.

I've even sketched with it a time or two and it worked just fine.

Maybe I need to play with them both :(. I've played with the Intuos and now I'm worried I'll be disappointed in the other, but if it does the pressure sensitivity and works with the brush tablet in photoshop I can't ask for more than that.

I can never do things half, so I own the intous 3, 8x6 inch. The main difference between this and the graphire is the added sensitivity (512 vs 1024 levels), the fact that the intous registers the tilting of the pen (airbrushing and caliography benefit especially from this, though any brush can be made to use it. In painter IX this feature is simply to die for) and last but not least, the touchstrip and the buttons on the side. "Not least? Pft, it's just a filthy gimmick". No...sorry...I use them all the time and they make the whole creative process a whole lot smoother. Zooming is way easier and it also means you won't have to have a hand floating over the keyboard all the time.
Ohh...and I forgot, the intous pen has a virtual eraser in the back. Nifty!

So...then...what to choose? For my use (manipulation and poking at drawing), the intous is overkill. I can't imagine using a smaller tablet though, I think I'd feel confined somehow. If you're going to draw however, you'll deffinetly benefit from having the intous and from what little I have done, I can say it's an enormous benefit. In either case I'd go with a 8x6, since it seems to be a fair compromise between cost, desk space and room to draw on.

PS. The graphires presure sensitivity does indeed work with photoshop

Hmm...so are sensitivity and buttons worth the money. And is all that and a larger size worth about double the price.

*ponders these questions*

If you're specifically looking for sensitivity, I'd say go for the Intuos. If you've already tested one out, you may get a little frustrated with the Graphire. I find the 4x5 size a little awkward, but everyone is different. I think the 6x8 is ideal - not too big a footprint on your desk and a little extra room over the smaller version. The larger sizes can be nice if you like to make big sweeping strokes (not me) or you would like a drawing area that is more similar to the size of the monitor, but they can be a bit unwieldly and you do have the option of resizing the working size of your file if you want to make long lines or short strokes. Overall, it really comes down to comfort and purpose.

ok Dark_Wolf no laughing at me, I had to turn the touch strip off on mine. As a left-handed person, and that strip located in the upper left corner of the pad, everytime my hand brushed it the piece i was working on would scale up or down. My sister of course found the cursing that followed very amusing. I actually have and use both a graphire (with the laptop) and the intuos (desktop). For me, the extra sensitivity doesn't make that much of a difference too often, and I have yet to find something I couldn't do with the graphire with a little extra effort.

I'm lazy though :shock ...and my hand cramps up with too much effort.

lol, that is what siblings are for. when the hand cramps you take a break and go annoy the siblings. Within moments you forget all about the hand. I can share. Mai loves to be pestered. Logon to all your different messengers and send her messages. She adores having lots of windows open. Searching for her open photoshop in a jungle of IMs is a game. Trust me. :p

/steeples fingers

Excellent.

Intuos 6x8 for me.. looking to upgrade to an Intuos 3 6x8 at some point down the road at some point. I tried the Grapphire and it's a bit too small for me to deal with. Also, I tried larger than the 6x8 and for my work, the efficiency level took a dive aafter that. What do I mean? Well, since the tablet works at a ratio to the screen size, if you have a small tablet... say a 6x8, then one inch moved on the tablet represents about 3 to 4 inches moved across the screen. If you get a larger one, then you end up having to move it further to get it to move the same distance on the screen.

Now, some people like that. It allows them to be more.. expressive with their work (well, that's what they tell me at least). I have to crank out multiple colored things a day so I favor speed over expression. lol

It's definitely a scenario where you should at least give it a try before you make the final decisions though.

I use the small cheapy graphire and have no troubles. The size is ok if you've never played with anything else to be spoiled on.. its all a matter of what you get used to. I remember coloring scanned in artwork with a mouse. O_O So this is a blessing and yet people still do mouse work and say we are all spoiled with the tablets. (read as jealous) So someone with a better one would probably complain about my little graphire but not having used the good one its good enough for me.

Though, yes, watching Rae resize her artwork over and over again made me giggle. She does spam my IM's too. :(

I have an intuos 6x9.. it's nice, but I never use it.
I used to have a 12x12, and that was ok, but the ratio was odd.. drawing a circle on the pad produced an oval on screen, so I had to adjust the usable area on the tablet.. long story short, get one of the proper ratio tablets, not a square one. and get an intuos over a graphire.

On the intous 3 there are touch strips in both sides of the pad. I have the one on the right disabled myself and thus only use the one on the left ;)

Okee...I was convinced I wanted the 9 by 12 but have been talked out of that. But you guys are right; I shall have to see if I can't get to a store and tool around with both.

Thanks for all the advice!

My boyfriend got me a 9x12 tablet for Christmas last year. At least I think it's 9x12, I don't have a ruler here. Seems slightly larger than that. Anyway, while I love having the tablet (it's a brand I hadn't heard of), the 9x12 is akward for me to use and takes up a lot of room on my desk. I had to reduce the working size on it to about 8x6, so there is a bunch of wasted space on it.

My graphire pen has the eraser on the end...

yep virtual eraser, with my cheap graphire one too. I'd like to get the Intuos 6X8/9 whatever.