Recommend a relatively cheap graphics tablet

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a digital camera and use Photoshop quite regularly. I also recently got a copy of Macromedia Flash, and am in the process of learning how to use it.

All the mouse work that i’ve been doing has left my right arm somewhat the worse for wear. I fear that continued mouse use will make things even worse.

Now, despite the fact that i use the mouse with my right hand, i’m actually left handed. Don’t ask me to explain this; all i know is that i can only really use my mouse with my right hand, but if i want to do actual writing or drawing with a pen then i use my left hand.

I thought that i might be able to help forestall carpal tunnel syndrome, increase my productivity, and be more accurate in my work by purchasing a graphics tablet to do some of the corrections and drawing required by programs like Photoshop and Flash. This would allow me to do a lot of the graphics stuff with my left hand, while still leaving my right hand free if needed to use the mouse.

So, now i need to find a tablet that fits the bill. Price is a key criterion, as i’m a grad student and can’t afford a whole lot of cash, especially for something that is really just part of a hobby and is not really a necessity. I should also say that i am not a graphic artist or an illustrator, and that any graphics creating that i do in Flash is likely to be fairly rudimentary.

A quick search on Google suggests that Wacom is one of the most prominent makers of these tablet, but that others are available. I also seems that the price of these products increases with the usable surface area of the tablet.

So, if you’ve used these products, can you tell me what i should be looking for? Can i do the type of thing that i want to do with a relatively small tablet? What features, if any, are most important? Any other suggestions?

In case it matters, i’m running a PIII 733MHz, 256Mb RAM, WinME.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

2

I use a Jamstudio tablet like this one. I also bought in on ebay. The drawing area is about 8" x 6", and it runs fine under all flavors of Windows up to and including XP Pro.

3

I had a great Wacom tablet. I used it to create my website. And then I lost the damn pen. Haven’t used it since.

Half a year ago, I got a really really cheap graphic tablet called Jam Studio so that I could create some cool animations for a Power Point presentation. It was $25 on eBay, and I got what I paid for. The animations turned out fine, but the pen is a nuisance. I was used to the Wacom pen, which is cordless and works just like a digital pen should. But the cheap Jam Studio pen comes with a cord attached to the tablet, and you have to fool around with the settings to get it to work correctly.

The software bundled with the Wacom tablet is wonderful for us amatuers. I still use it even though I no longer use the tablet.

The Wacom tablet does come with some drawbacks. For one, I didn’t like the cordless mouse. It would freeze up a lot, and I didn’t like the jerkiness of motion. So I ended up using the regular mouse a lot of the times, which meant having to find space for my mouse pad next to my tablet. But that’s the only complaint I really have. I had the smallest tablet size available and found it sufficient for what I wanted to do. I bought my tablet about four years ago and paid $99. If I still had the damn pen, I’d be using it all the time I think.

4

http://wacomdirect.wacom.com/wacomdirect/product.asp?dept_id=230&sku=EP120ESTEEL

5

I’m in sorta the same position as you, mhendo. I own photoshop and a digital camera and Flash, and my wrist had started to hurt, and I’m left handed.

Long story short, I bought a Wacom Graphire with a 4x5 drawing area. That sounds small, but I found that it was adequate. I got it for about $60 (I think) at Sam’s Club. It was well worth it.

I also find that I don’t use the mouse at all, just the pen.

6

I have one of the 4 x 5 Wacom tablets. It cost me about $70.00 and it has been adequate as well. I don’t use the mouse either but I didn’t get it for the mouse anyway. It is much better at outlining areas than using the mouse.

7

**Q ** - Are you buying this one as a spare? I’d be very nervous about buying something from a defunct company, not to mention the inability to control the sensitivity in XP. I like the seller’s typo of how the tablet becomes way too sensible in XP. :stuck_out_tongue: Corded stylus is a bit of a drag also.

My desk has been rodent-free for over ten years. I’ve been using this Wacom Grahpire for about four years and adore it. Before that was another Wacom - think it was called an Art Pad. And before that, I had an Ace Cat with corded stylus. The Graphire comes with a cordless mouse, but I never use it. The Graphire’s still working fine after four years. Other than my Sun Unix boxes, there’s not much in my computing world that’s still working as well after four years as it did fresh out of the box. For something that’s grabbed and handled all day long, that’s an accomplishment.

4x5 is sufficient for pretty much everything except digitizing (ie: placing a drawing, map or whatever on the tablet and tracing it) It’s a comfortable size to use in its entirety as your Windows Desktop. With Wacom (and probably other brands) you can designate some smaller portion of the tablet as your desktop - not so important on the 4x5, but if you had a 12x16 tablet, you wouldn’t want to be using the entire surface for the desktop.

Of course, I still ogle the Wacom Cintiq

8

Nah, I’ve had this one for about three years now. I only hopped on eBay to see if anyone still had any to sell to show the OP. I’m actually pretty pleased with it. The corded stylus isn’t much of an issue–the cord never seems to get int eh way, really. If you need a decent, cheap tablet, I’d recommend it.

9

for the love of god DO NOT GET THE JAMSTUDIO TABLET. If you want to do any graphic work at all it’s horrdenus(I own one.).

I recommend wacom. The grapphire 2 series isn’t too expensive anymore. I don’t own one, but every artist I know only buys wacom.

10

Thanks for all the advice, folks.

While the JamStudio is closest to my ideal budget, i do like the idea of a cordless pen, and the Wacom Graphire series seems to get good reviews all over the internet, so i might see if i can pick one up second-hand. If i can’t, i think i’ll probably talk myself into spending 99 bucks for a new one.

Thanks again.