Hardware Review - Wacom Intuos3

So I picked up a Wacom tablet on Friday, for the purpose of editing and such during my digital photography courses and beyond. My original intent was to purchase the small Wacom Bamboo Fun, a creative editing tool that runs about $130.00 CDN at Futureshop, or $99.00 US. However, after chatting with a few tablet wielding folks in my class, all of whom stated that the Bamboo didn't have fine enough pixal control, I decided on the Wacom Intuos3

The Intuos3 starts at $280.00 CDN at Futureshop (About $220.00 US) and is specially designed for digital editting and creative professionals. It is described on the Wacom website as "the most popular pen tablet for creative professionals" and comes in six differant sizes, starting down at 4x6 and going all the way up to 12x19. For practicality and affordibility, I chose the 4x6 which is more than enough space to play with.

One of the main things I struggled with at first was the fact that you don't have to drag or shuffle the pen the way you do a mouse to cover the whole screen. Each point on the tablet represents a piece of your screen so you literally grab something, move it to another point and let it go. The "right click" function is performed by a button on the side of the pen. The only complaint I have there is that you have to hold it down and wait for it to load before it actually clicks. It can be a bit complicated and I find that I'm resorting to using the touchpad on my laptop when I get frustrated.

I've been trying to use the tablet all the time to get myself adjusted to it and so far I'm really impressed with what I can do with it. I practiced some of my sketching exercises and I find that I get the same finite control that I do when using a pencil, the control that's lost when using a mouse. I also love that Vista includes a pen function that allows me to take the tablet and write things in. My writing, especially when using a computer tool, is chickenscratch and the tablet can even read that, which I find pretty incredible, since that was my main concern with using it as a note taking tool.

I'm going to add to the review as the year goes on, especially when it comes to the editting techniques, but so far I'm thoroughly impressed with it.