Opinions on the Bamboo Wacom tablet?

[Saren]

I'm considering buying one from Officeworks for $98...is it worth it?

What first attracted me to it was the battery-free stylus. I already have a tablet but the digital pen needs a battery that is hard to find. The manufacturer sells the batteries at $15 for 2! In the long term, a battery-free stylus would cost me less.
I haven't been able to find any tablet-screen hybrids anywhere near me.

[Mehrdad]

Wacom is best choose in versus with another models.(like Genius).
if you can buy Intuous 4(Medium model is nice and pretty inexpensive)  you have  found professional movements. and support any graphic and animation softwares for pressure sensitivity and more...

[GarageGothic]

I have the smallest (A6?) Wacom Bamboo Pen-and-Touch and love it to pieces. The accuracy is enough for my style of art, and the small size is actually a benefit since I never used the full work area of my clunky old A4 tablet. Also makes it easy to transport in my laptop bag - portability is key to any good tool.

Buy extra pen nibs, though. They wear down quickly.

[hedgefield]

I own both a Bamboo Fun and an Intuos4, and even though the Intuos4 obviously has a far better pressure sensitivity, I still enjoy working on the Bamboo just fine. It fits perfectly in my messenger bag so I take it to work all the time. I picked the Fun because it's the only one that also comes in a Medium format, which in my opinion is a perfect size (and far superior to those little ones).

Wacom is pretty much the only game in town

[Anian]

Buy extra pen nibs, though. They wear down quickly.

I got like 4 pieces with my tablet.

The only thing that started to worry me is that I push rather hard when I'm drawing and especially since the pressure sensitivity gives an effect on the lines that I'm not yet used to. So I was afraid I'm gonna start scratching the surface. But I kind of solved that problem by putting a clean piece of paper on the actual tablet surface - the pen signal is still there and on the plus side i get the feeling of drawing on a piece of paper.

Also "inking" is rather hard on such a small surface and you can't really get lines that are smooth...but I kind of solved it by using vectors (pen tool in PS).

[Saren]

I bought it yesterday. It works great. The movement is very sensitive and smooth. It even came with ArtRage.

[LupaShiva]

I have one and it's awesome, so go for it 

[Cuiki]

I bought one Bamboo Fun for â,¬100 from my own brother and it wasn't very new either (about 2 years old), but I don't regret it at all. It was a little pricey, I admit (and he's a fuckin scrooge), but it don't think I'll need a better tablet anytime soon. It works smooth and feels natural and it hasn't got me frustrated so far.

Although you might want to check if there are any better offers on e-bay before you buy this one.

EDIT: D'oh, just saw you've bought it already.  :

[Layabout]

For anyone else considering it, apparantly it is an excellent tablet, even recommended by game art professionals.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php014

[Tabata]

I'd like to get a graphic tablet, too. But this would be my very first one without ever having used something like this before.

After studying the www about different graphic tablets and reading your posts here I like the Bamboo fun medium most. 

May I use this thread to ask you about if this one also would be alright for a newbie or should I start with something cheaper for a first try?

[Babar]

As a complete noob at tabletting, who bought his first tablet, and had it be a bamboo fun, yeah, I can recommend it.

Being as I'm a complete noob, and have no idea what features I'm missing (lots of talk about tilt on these forums), it is perfect for what I do.

[Tabata]

Thank you for your reply Babar!

I'll give it a try and order this one, too.

[Squinky]

I use a knock off brand tablet from Aiptek that is no longer supported

They don't even sell Nibs for it anymore, they just send me free ones about every six months when I beg.

It's done everything I've ever needed out of it though, so I cant see a problem with you getting a bamboo. I plan on buying a Large intous4 this spring if all goes well, I'm hoping it is worth the investment.

[Anian]

Yeah, Wacom actually has a dark secret about supporting older tablets and some have problems if your tablet doesn't have a usb connection. And I don't really like the way the cable connects to the actual tablet, seems very delicate and just begging to start losing contact at random.
Other than that, they either have a very good network of marketing spies and people who got free tablets, or a lot of people really find their product the best. Or if not best, it seems to have the best quality control, because it seems when using Trust and other manufacturers it depends on the actual unit you bought if it's going to work fine or not.

Oh, and just be careful what model you're actually buying, cause even now on their site, there's like 4 Bamboo types, plus 2 sizes.

[LimpingFish]

I think I've already stated this in a past thread, but an A6 Bamboo Pen + Touch is a fine tablet for someone who really doesn't need either the acreage or the super sensitivity of something like an Intuos 4. I'm happy with mine.

And, at a sub-one hundred euro price point, it won't break the bank.

[Squinky]

For the price I plan to pay for an Intous4 large, I hope it rocks my world. But I doubt it

The problem I have (And I assume others as well) is that I have never seen a tablet in a store, never been able to fiddle with a display model. You gotta order them on the internet and just cross your fingers.

[Murgy]

Squinky, unless you are very sure that you need a large tablet, I would highly recommend the medium instead.  I owned a large Intuous 2 for several years and while I used it a lot, it was rather cumbersome and often ended up getting covered by sketchpads and dinner plates.

I currently own a medium Intuous 4, which is just about perfect in size.  I tend to draw fairly small anyway, and the medium size lets you sit the tablet comfortably in your lap while you draw, which feels more natural to me.

There are legitimate uses for a large wacom, like if you're used to large, brush-stroke arm movements, but unless you know exactly why you need a large, you'll likely have a better time with a medium.

[Squinky]

I've considered a medium, but my current tablet has an active area of 9x12. The medium Wacom is 5x8.....Not sure if I would like that.

I've never tried a medium size before though, the first tablet I used was a Wacom graphire, with a really small work area. It really messed me up, if I got used to the tablet, my traditional art suffered, because the strokes were so different. Then I went to my big generic tablet, and loved it.

Oddly enough, I keep a pretty large work area (a L shaped corner, I have a big old school metal desk and an old metal drafting table) So I'm not worried about storing it.

I wonder though if medium would work...

[Murgy]

Well if you're used to drawing large, then a large wacom might work okay for you. 

I just know that the first time I bought a wacom I just bought the large one cause "bigger is better", which isn't really the case.  It just depends on what works best for you.