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Bit of advice needed, Intuos 4 Medium or Bamboo Fun Medium


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Hi Guys,

I am looking at buying my first graphics tablet and hoped someone can give me some advice on which one to buy.

My brother bought himself a Bamboo pen and touch 2nd edition the other day and I have never used a stylus before so gave it a go in 3D Coat and was really impressed so I started looking into buying one for myself.

I don't know if monitor size has anything to do with tablet size but I am using a 30" monitor.

I was leaning towards a medium Intuos4 but then took a look at the medium Bamboo Fun and now don't know which will meet my needs best, basically I will be using it for painting and some sculpting in 3D Coat and maybe drawing in a 2D package.

I know the Intuos4 has twice the pressure levels, better resolution, pen tilt, higher report rate, more options regarding nibs etc however over here it costs $410 AUD compared to $220 AUD for the Bamboo Fun Medium (the silver one).

Am I likely to make use of the extra features, especially in 3D Coat (sculpting and painting) or are they mainly gimics?

I also read that the Intuos4 goes through nibs quite fast, is this consistent for most users or is it down to personal use (eg. how hard you press down with the pen)?

I don't mind paying the extra for the Intuos4 if I am going to see a benefit within 3D Coat, for instance is the resolution much more useful on the Intuos4 (5080) compared to the Bamboo Fun (2540)?

Unfortunately I don't know of anywhere local I can go and compare the tablets.

Looking forward to any advice you can offer.

Thanks,

Andrew.

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I have a wireless wacom graphire tablet that I rarely use. I find the mouse is much easier (and more stable) for pecking on screen buttons and dragging things around. Although a pen is definitely nice for brushing strokes onto a model, but I just can't be bothered switching to the pen just for a few brush stroke, so I stick to the mouse for the sake of continuity.

Another issue I have with my tablet is that the buttons are in the top center which makes them really awkward to reach, especially when sitting with the tablet in my lap. I notice the Bamboo also has the awkward button placement. The Intuos tablets have buttons down the sides which would obviously be much better as it means you can assign the ctrl, alt and shift functions to them.

I've actually considered getting an Intuos tablet because of the better button placement. But if you're somebody that's happy to sit at a desk all the time and use a keyboard in conjunction with the tablet then the button placement on the bamboo shouldn't be a problem.

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I have been working with bamboo fun multi-touch (medium size) and I'm a happy user. The buttons are on the right side of the table. Also there is

good settings for left handed person too. I used 3d-coat one year before I bought this and for me it really makes the diffrence.

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INTUOS :)

the bamboo comes only with the hard platic nibs If I remember correctly,

those are total utter crap.The nib with a spring,thats the one.

And also,if I remember correctly,the one I had was just hard plastic surface

without the protective sheet that gives half of the sculpting feeling.

DONT BUY a bamboo.

On ebay you can find Intuos at same price if you are lucky.

(about nibs...you can be pretty insane with those.

To wear out an Intuos pen spring nid below a 6 month of use you must have carpal tunnel syndrome as a goal)

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This topic come in hand for me... I will get a Bamboo medium and would like to know if theres the flickiring pointer with it. I had a old Graphire and the pointer in the screen flicks a littel, so use to control the computer wasnt so good. But now I have a large Trust tablet and its a pain, I will give it to my 6 old kid.

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@Drocket.... there are several differences between the intuos 4 and the bamboo fun ...here are the main reasons I went with the intuos 4 medium ;

the 5-button mouse, the eraser tip pen, the airbrush pen, the inking pen and the art pen can only be used with intuos 4 generation tablets

the intuos 4 has the Wacom Generation 2 Tip Sensor...the bamboo fun doesn't

the intuos 4 has 5,080 lpi....the bamboo fun has 2,540 lpi

the intuos 4 has tilt,(+/-60 degrees) the bamboo fun doesn't have tilt

the intuos 4 has 2048 lop,...the bamboo fun has 1024

the intuos 4 has 8 Express Keys....the bamboo fun has 4

the intuos 4 has 8 Express Key Illuminated Displays....the bamboo fun has 0

the intuos 4 has Finger Sensitive Touch Ring.(up to four functions per application)....bamboo fun doesn't have that feature

the intuos 4 has Radial Menus ....the bamboo fun doesn't have that feature

the intuos 4 has Precision Mode.....the bamboo fun doesn't have that feature

the intuos 4 has 14.6 x 10.0 x 0.5 in Tablet Dimensions (inches).....the bamboo fun has 9.8 x 6.9 Tab.Dim.

as for jittering, the only time mine ever jittered was when I first got my wacom, had some settings adjusted too high, etc,,,but never have had probs with jittering again since adjusting the settings,

as for the nibs, I've never had to buy/replace any of my nibs ever since I got my intuos 4,,n believe me, have put them thru some very extreme wear n tear (especially pressure-wise) when using them in some of my 3d/voxel programs. so at this point they appear to be indestructable. have also found that the pen, mouse & tablet are almost indestructable.(which is really a big plus considering how haphazard I can be,lol)

.

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Not much to say: An intuos is always the first choise. No matter which one, everyone is very good. For me an i4 M wide is ok and do the work.

The last intuos I used is a intuos one. It was never broken and is still in my cabinet for my travels.

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Too bad you can't go compare tablets, but I have.

The intuos is far superior in capability and performance. Actually, even a used intuos 3 is great, and cheaper if price is at all an issue.

Greg

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Can't recommend an Intuos enough. I've been using them for quite a long time. In fact I used my Intuos2 up until a few months ago... Loving the Intuos4 now.

It's responsive, high quality, and can't be beat.

See 3D Sculptress' post above for a great breakdown (Nice post!):

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6063&view=findpost&p=45590

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Thanks for all the great advice everyone, very helpful.

I had been edging towards the Intuos4 before I saw the bamboo fun (http://www.wacom-asia.com/bamboo/bamboofun/), one thing I wanted to make sure of was that I only buy one tablet which will hopefully meet my needs for a number of years which seems to be the case with the Intuos range, from looking here and the newtek forums. It seems most users have had them for several years and only upgrade when they wanted to and not usually because of failure.

The other worry I had with the Intuos4 was the nib wear, from what you are saying sounds like it is down more to users maybe pressing the pen to hard than a design fault (there is a big post on the Wacom EU forums about it).

Does 3D Coat make use of the tilt feature?

I think I will go and place an order for the Intuos4, in the meantime I will try and get some time with my brothers bamboo graphics tablet.

Thanks again for the advice :)

Andrew.

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Thanks for all the great advice everyone, very helpful.

I had been edging towards the Intuos4 before I saw the bamboo fun (http://www.wacom-asia.com/bamboo/bamboofun/), one thing I wanted to make sure of was that I only buy one tablet which will hopefully meet my needs for a number of years which seems to be the case with the Intuos range, from looking here and the newtek forums. It seems most users have had them for several years and only upgrade when they wanted to and not usually because of failure.

The other worry I had with the Intuos4 was the nib wear, from what you are saying sounds like it is down more to users maybe pressing the pen to hard than a design fault (there is a big post on the Wacom EU forums about it).

Does 3D Coat make use of the tilt feature?

I think I will go and place an order for the Intuos4, in the meantime I will try and get some time with my brothers bamboo graphics tablet.

Thanks again for the advice smile.gif

Andrew.

I'm real sure that my wacom tab, pen n nibs will outlast me n then be handed down to several generations in the future ,

thought I'd post this info, since you're comparing wacoms...if you're a student, or have children interested in 3d that are students, check out this site ;

(my intuos 4 medium was app. 400 bucks, but would only be $269.00 with student discount..so quite a bit of savings there....and the reg price for the bamboo fun is $199.00, but is only $138.95 with the student discount)

http://www.studentex...show/wacom.html

Bamboo Tablet + Pen (A6) Student

£53.12

Bamboo Fun Tablet + Pen (A5) Student

£138.95

Graphire Wireless Tablet (A5) Student

£138.95

Intuos4 Medium Student

£269.73

.......................................

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...

Does 3D Coat make use of the tilt feature?

...

Andrew.

No it doesn't.

Very less tools supports the tilt feature. It is mosten supported by illustration tools like "painter" or "ArtRage". Not even photoshop is supporting the tilt feature, as I know (I am still using the CS3).

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Thanks everyone for your comments :)

I ordered the Intuos4 medium, it should be here tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Is there a preference to which nib you guys are using, I believe it comes with 5x std, 1x flex (I assume this is the spring one that artman is referring to?), 1x stroke and 3x felt nibs?

Thanks,

Andrew.

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Thanks everyone for your comments :)

I ordered the Intuos4 medium, it should be here tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Is there a preference to which nib you guys are using, I believe it comes with 5x std, 1x flex (I assume this is the spring one that artman is referring to?), 1x stroke and 3x felt nibs?

Thanks,

Andrew.

You are so gonna love that tablet once you get used to it. I just use the standard nib, and have never needed to replace it, but nice to have extras just in case. Didn't like the felt tip, but that's just a matter of preference. They're easy to change, so try them all!

Greg

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Thanks everyone for your comments smile.gif

I ordered the Intuos4 medium, it should be here tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Is there a preference to which nib you guys are using, I believe it comes with 5x std, 1x flex (I assume this is the spring one that artman is referring to?), 1x stroke and 3x felt nibs?

Thanks,

Andrew.

congrats !!.drinks.gif .you will absolutely love your wacom..

.its recommended by some that you download the drivers from the wacom site, instead of installing from the disc..that's what I did...if I remember correctly I think even wacom recommends that its done that way, as well.... a nib extractor is inside the pen stand, and the Pen arrives with a nib ready to start using, plus 10 extra nibs=5 standard black, 3 hard textured felt nibs(grey), 1 soft flex nib (white n black)and a spring loaded stroke nib(grey)....=11 nibs total.....you'll be able to plug the usb up to the right or left side of the tab...,........my tab is parked right between me n my monitor, and my keyboard is on the right side of my tab, angled towards my right hand....if you wanna try the tilt out, PDArtist allows tilt control..great program just to play around in or create textures.

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Thanks Greg, very much appreciated, by the way I really liked your tutorials/videos on Vimeo, the ghost turned out really well.

Lol, I have downloaded the drivers already :)

I imagine it will take a while to get used to as I have only ever used a mouse, when I tried my brothers bamboo I had trouble selecting the correct tool I wanted from the list, I would end up selecting either side of it but that is just down to me, lol.

Do you have a nib preference 3D Sculptress?

I guess I am trying to figure out when and under what circumstances you might use the other nibs?

Thanks,

Andrew.

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the intuos 4 has 14.6 x 10.0 x 0.5 in Tablet Dimensions (inches).....the bamboo fun has 9.8 x 6.9 Tab.Dim.

This is only partly true. The Intuos 4 comes in several sizes, one is very similar in size to the Bamboo or Graphire models.

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Thanks Greg, very much appreciated, by the way I really liked your tutorials/videos on Vimeo, the ghost turned out really well.

Lol, I have downloaded the drivers already smile.gif

I imagine it will take a while to get used to as I have only ever used a mouse, when I tried my brothers bamboo I had trouble selecting the correct tool I wanted from the list, I would end up selecting either side of it but that is just down to me, lol.

Do you have a nib preference 3D Sculptress?

I guess I am trying to figure out when and under what circumstances you might use the other nibs?

Thanks,

Andrew.

the springy brush (aka paintbrush) gives the pen a 'bounce' kinda the same as you would have when painting with a brush...the felt nib creates more friction, giving the feel of dragging rather than sliding...which gives more of a feeling of actually drawing and allowing more control in guiding the pen..and the hard nibs are good for sketching out a character,etc...opinions and results will vary per user, tho, about most all of this...

but if you do wear your nibs out (which will take ALOT of extreme use, you can just go here and buy 10 packs of any nib (except the stroke nib) for about 10 bucks https://direct.wacom.com/stores/5/Replacement_Parts_C149.cfm .....the stroke nib 10 pack is about 20 bucks. (I did say 'about, cause those prices don't include s & h...but are still purty darn cheap considering how much a new pen would cost, so good thing they're replaceable)

some folks tape drawing paper over their wacom just to get an even more 'real' feel of actually drawing, and keep the paper changed as it wears out....if you don't mind holdin the paper in place while you draw, then you wouldn't even need to tape it really, long as you didn't get too carried away,lol..........but as for personal preference, I just switch nibs according to the project I'm working on at the time. the stroke nib is like a combo of the felt n the hard nib,imo.

as for tilt in 3DCoat, you can go to 'pen options' (in the right tool panel of the UI) n then enable the 'rotate along motion direction'..then the brush will actually turn with the direction your pen/mouse drags the brush..,,. you can also tinker with the 'pen rotation' option settings for more effects.(the less the number is the better the results may be)..

your wacom is going to provide endless hours of enjoyment and experimentation, that's for sure, whether it be in 2d or 3d..wink.gif

.

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quote by 3D_Sculptress;'''''the intuos 4 has 14.6 x 10.0 x 0.5 in Tablet Dimensions (inches).....the bamboo fun has 9.8 x 6.9 Tab.Dim.''''''..end quote.

.

This is only partly true. The Intuos 4 comes in several sizes, one is very similar in size to the Bamboo or Graphire models.

I stand corrected as for the size of the bamboo fun....

'''''the intuos 4 has 14.6 x 10.0 x 0.5 in Tablet Dimensions (inches).....the bamboo fun has 13.3" x 8.8" Tab.Dim.''''''

sorry bout that...was trying to multi-task again....but also, yes, intuos 4 has various sizes, but as I stated in the sentence right before the comparisons, I was making comparison between the intuos 4 medium and the bamboo fun,,, because those were the ones that Drocket had refered to for comparison...so therefore as long as that sentence isn't taken out of its context, , its completely true, I just goofed on the size of the bamboo fun....wink.gif

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