Graphics tablets is one of the few sectors in the technology market where one brand dominates to the point where it's the only one professionals would consider. Wacom has a well-established reputation as the best that money can buy, but despite the lack of competition the company hasn't stood still.
It has recently upgraded its professional Intuos range of tablets and we're taking a look at what the Intuos 4 Professional Pen Tablet has to offer. The Intuos 4 comes in four sizes, Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large and prices range from $229 to $789 (MSRP).
The price includes the Tablet as well as the right to download the following plugins:
http://www.animationtipsandtricks.com/?utm_campaign=tipstrickslg
• Nik® Color Efex Pro™ WE6
• Wacom Brushes 3.0 and two of the following three software packages:
• Adobe Photoshop® Elements 7 Windows or Adobe Photoshop® Elements 6 for Macintosh
• Autodesk SketchBook Express® 2010
• Corel Painter™ Sketch Pad
See the the videos:
All four versions have an active area for the pen, and a side bar with buttons (Express Keys) and a touch ring, similar to what you find on an iPod. The Small model has an active area of 6.2" x 3.9". This size was comparable to the tablet I had been using and I decided I wanted something larger. The Medium has an active area of 8.8" x 5.5" and an overall size of 14.6" x 10", or roughly the size of my 15" MacBook Pro. The larger models (Medium, Large and Extra Large) all have LCD displays next to the Express Keys which are used to display the function assigned to each key. Unfortunately the small version does not have this feature. All four models come with the following:
• Intuos4 medium pen tablet
• Intuos4 Grip Pen
• Intuos4 mouse
• Pen stand
• Ten replacement nibs (five standard nibs, one flex nib, one stroke nib, and three hard felt nibs)
• Nib extractor
• 5' USB cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Installation CD (includes tablet driver software and electronic user manual)
The Intuos currently sits near the top of Wacom's range, which starts with the Bamboo for casual users, offers the Graphire for those who want wireless, and culminates with the Cintiq which combines a tablet and LCD monitor into a single device. Though Cintiqs are still the most expensive of Wacom's offerings, in fact the Intuos 4 is the best-specified tablet out of the lot because the Cintiqs are still based around the same architecture as the Intuos 3 was. Wacom's pen tablets are very well made, in fact of all of the tablet brands I consider Wacom the absolute best. Not only are their products cutting edge in the world of pen tablets but you can also rest assured that any program that supports a pen tablet will not only work with Wacom's tablets but work the best with Wacom's tablets.
Programs like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, Microsoft Office and more are all designed to work the best with a Wacom tablet. While there are other brands out there that may be a bit cheaper, the support they have from companies like Adobe, Corel and Microsoft can often times be hit or miss. In fact any problems you do have with these other brands and software compatibility leaves you having to deal with the maker of the tablet, in the end it is up to them to make their product work with whatever software you want to use.
This isn’t a problem with Wacom tablets because when a company add pen tablet support it is always going to work with a Wacom tablet. While the pen that comes standard with the Wacom Intuos 4 tablets are very comfortable and besides including the pressure sensitive pen tip end with pen tilt there is also a pressure sensitive eraser and a two button rocker button that you can custom program using the Wacom driver software. The tablet itself includes two sets of four buttons (also custom programmable) and two touch sensitive strips that you can program for zooming, and other such tasks.
-----------------------------------
------------------------
---------------
Video from Wacom:
--------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment