help with graphic tablet! Not for me!

[Nikolas]

Ok. Here is the thing (and afterwards the link  ):

My father in law is rather ill, and probably will spend much time in hospital and much more time at home. Let me not go in depth of his health problems, but he's having chronious illnesses and his health will never get back to normal, and this is something that hurts really bad phychologically.

So I was thinking of getting him a present (graphic tablet) to help him feel better.

He likes drawing, he is an architect, really open minded (he did accept me as his son in law, which is already WAY TOO MUCH  ), and he is 60 years old.

Now because of all that, I don't want to go into deap and spend too much, or to get the perfect tablet. Most google searches came uip with a Wacom of around £120-130 A5 size. Not too bad a price.

however I found this which seems very resonable. Obviously worst than a Wacom one, but bigger and cheaper. The dissadvantages I see is the batery on the pen, and some in relation with the pressure you need to put on. but father in law is far from an artist, and don't know that much.

Should I got for it?

Does anyone have any experience with Trust products?

any help?

I really don't like ebay, and would hate to go into ebay to save £20 or something...

[auriond]

What you can do is to get a Taiwanese brand tablet that's quite popular on this side of the world, and is apparently a lot cheaper than Wacom. It's called Genius. Here are some sites that I found which sell them in the UK:

http://www.techfever.co.uk/products.asp?partno=9643
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info-pc.asp?id=1970&pc=dealtime

Here's their official website: http://www.geniusnet.co.uk/

[scotch]

I've had a lot of problems with most non wacom tablets I've had or used (including trust, genius, and aiptek ones), the pen weight and battery replacing is a bit annoying if you use it much, but also the surface feel is often bad, and there are usually poor drivers that simply won't work sometimes, or lose pressure sensitivity. The spring loaded pens are more prone to going bad, too, and it's often hard to find replacements. Just my experiences...

As for sizes, A5 is a good size, I recently bought an Intuos 3 A5, and it's the perfect tablet for me, but it is expensive for a gift. A6 is very usable, but the movements you make are of course smaller, and for an older person I'd imagine it's harder to be steady. I don't find A4 better than A5, and I'd rather save the desk space and arm motion, but that will vary depending on the person.

You are still a student, right? If you do go for a wacom, you might find the best wacom deals at places like mycomputerbits.com that do student discounts, I saved about £50 on my tablet, but the discount is less on the lower end ones.

However, even as a wacom user, I think since it is a gift and he isn't currently a tablet user, you can take a chance with that Trust one, it'll probably make a decent first drawing tablet.

[ManicMatt]

Trust is the sort of thing I will find in Asda...

I went with wacom myself.

And as people have said, the whole battery in a pen thing sucks.

He'd have to go out to buy a new battery, yes? And the weight makes it uncomfortable to use.

[esper]

Hey Nik.

I use a Manhattan graphics tablet that I got for 60 bucks on EBay. I don't have any experience with other tablets, and my pen has a battery in it. It hasn't died in a year and a half of constant use, and it's a AAA, so it's very light. You can see the result of what I do with it with the screenies from Alpha - X.  I've never had the pleasure of using a premium quality tablet, like a Wacom, but I can tell you I'm extremely happy with my generic 60 dollar pen tablet.

EDIT: BTW, mine is a 6 x 8.

[Nikolas]

Thanks guys!

I went for the Trust one, after all... don't think it really matters for my father in law... Plus he won't be using it too much, so as to waste too quickly the battery.

Thank you for your suggestions and your help. Your help is most appreciated.