Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch

I've been wanting a Wacom tablet for years but the price on them has always put me off. I love to draw, but pencil and paper just isn't cutting it for me anymore. I wanted to get my art directly onto the computer and be able to play with it in Photoshop (and scanning artwork in every single time is a chore).With the Bamboo line I finally decided to jump in and go for it. After scouring Youtube and the rest of the internet for product reviews on this bad boy I felt comfortable enough to know what I could expect from one of these things.First off, if this is your first drawing tablet then prepared to be amazed. Drawing with it is simple easy and lots of fun. My jaw dropped when I saw how much my lines looked as if I had just drawn them with a real pencil. There's a learning curve though. As an artist I'm used to looking down at the paper as I draw or paint, I like to be able to see exactly where my hands are. So it takes some getting used to with having to look at your monitor instead. It's almost drawing blind in a way as you can't tell where your hand is at. However, your on-screen brush/paint cursors follow the movements of your hand exactly, so you always know where to put your lines. It's just take a bit of getting used too, but after a few weeks of it you'll be just fine.The pen itself is very weighty, so it provides a good grip and a lot of control. The two customizable buttons on it at it's base though can be a bit of a pain. It's so easy to click them while you're drawing, but it's not really a big deal, just a minor quibble. The buttons are ridiculously useful though, I have one set up for adjusting my brush size and the other for panning the canvas in Photoshop, so I'll gladly take a little headache in exchange for these kinds of features. The pen even has an eraser on it. Just flip it over while drawing and your brush automatically switches to eraser mode. How this works I have absolutely no idea, but it does work and it's such a handy little feature. I wasn't expecting such a fully featured pen tool for this price.The pen is also completely wireless and it doesn't require batteries either. Again, how the heck the pen works like this is anyone's guess. But no one will argue that it's nothing short of awesome.If you've been wanting to draw, paint or whatever with a drawing tablet but have yet to do so then this tablet won't let you down. It's the perfect introductory tablet to digital drawing and it's one you'll use for years. Don't let it's price or looks fool you. You can create professional quality artwork and beyond with this thing.I'm too used to the mouse, so I don't use the tablet as a mouse replacement. But I have to admit, writing out the names of websites or Google searches in my own handwriting and having it automatically recognized by the tablet is too cool for words.Oh, and one handy little tip I came up with. I like the drawing texture on the tablet, but if you're like me and would like something a little more close to actual paper then check this out. Take a small sheet of paper, cut it up so it matches the size of the drawing screen and place it on top of the drawing area. Tape it down on the sides and try drawing on it, the texture, feel, and behavior of the brush is just like drawing in your favorite sketchbook with no loss of tablet functionality.Great product, 5 stars easy.

Unless you really like writing with a pen over typing on a keyboard, this product is only for digital artists (the touch feature does not replace a mouse). I got this for my girlfriend who couldn't use her old serial port Wacom tablet in conjunction with her new laptop PC (Windows 7). She's an artist and likes doing a lot of digital work. For a low price this gave her everything she wanted.The pressure sensitivity and resolution this tablet offers are identical to the professional tablets that Wacom offered a number of years ago (the Intuos2 series), but its price is much lower. This tablet is a great value for an artist on a budget since it offers more than you'll need (and even offers touch navigation if/when you want it).(On a related note, I would suggest that artists stay away from the pen-only bamboo tablet. It doesn't offer the same pressure sensitivities and resolution. It's currently cheaper on Amazon, yes, but you'd be losing too much for the price. Save up for the pen-AND-touch tablet.)The only problem we had with the Pen and Touch involved the Windows 7 tablet settings and the Wacom tablet management settings. I don't recall what we eventually had to change, but the tablet lagged horribly and stuttered across the screen when when the pen came into contact with it. We fiddled with the response times and turned many features on and off. In the end we got it to work flawlessly and smooth, but I'm not really sure what we did to accomplish that. Be warned, you might need to do similar tweaking. :)As for closing comments, I thought the little strap to hold the pen was cute and functioned well. Also, the "touch" feature is a nice thing to have in theory, but neither of us have really tried it enough to decide if we like it or not. The little bit we have used the touch feature we thought it was functional, responsive and easy to use, but the touch pad built in to her laptop worked well enough for the most of the same actions.