Wacom Tablets

TyphoidG

So I'm looking to get a wacom tablet - trouble is, I don't have any kind of program a la photoshop in which to use it. Also, I don't have a lot of cash to put towards this stuff. So, I have two questions:

Does anyone have any experience with this thing? Is it worth the purchase?

http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-Tablet-Graphics-Software/dp/B000V9NU2A/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1197954826&sr=8-5

Also, what about the program that it comes with? I understand that it's like some kind of watered down photoshop, but what does that mean exactly? I'm looking to get into some basic sketching / graphic design stuff in my free time. What do you guys think?

Thanks!

Spoit

Don't have any experience with the Bamboo in paticular, but even the cheaper wacoms have always been very high quality and worth the cost compared to other companies

amateurhour

Get the Bamboo fun if you're going to get a tablet. I wanted a Wacom for a long time, and I kept putting it off due to the cost, and looking at the knock offs. I finally bought the bamboo fun when it came out, and I absolutely love it. It's very easy to get used to once you fiddle with the settings.

The bamboo fun comes with photoshop elements 5.0, some filters for elements, and corel painter, which is basically a virtual canvas. I'd also reccoment getting open canvas and the photoshop brushes available from the links in the artists corner. It comes with a mouse, but the mouse only works on the tablets surface, so it's useless on a small tablet.

What elements means is that it isn't the full version, so it doesn't have a lot of the filters and brushes, but like I said, you can get the brushes anyway. The versions it comes with are more than enough to get started and make some great stuff.

The only difference between the Bamboo and the nice intuos is that it's got half the pressure sensitivity and it doesn't have the tilt feature in the pen, Also, you can't use the airbrush pens and accessory pens on the Bamboo, or Graphire, for that matter. For getting started though it's absolutely perfect.

Bamboo Fun (small)- It's $100 and worth every penny.

Edit: I know you're looking at the fun already, I just wanted to make sure you didn't see the Bamboo regular and get that instead because it's cheaper. It doesn't come with the mouse or software.

Evil Multifarious

Somewhat related question: I lost the pen for my Wacom Graphire tablet, but I can't find a goddamn way to buy the pen separately anywhere except the Wacom site itself, which only ships to the US, apparently. Anyone know where I can find the pen by itself?

amateurhour

Evil Multifarious wrote: »

Somewhat related question: I lost the pen for my Wacom Graphire tablet, but I can't find a goddamn way to buy the pen separately anywhere except the Wacom site itself, which only ships to the US, apparently. Anyone know where I can find the pen by itself?

I'd call wacom. They have a way to ship it to you, they ship worldwide. Hell, they even have different store locations depending on where on earth you live.