Preserved Topic: Cheap beginner's tablet?

Does anyone know of a fairly cheap tablet? I don't want anything fancy, just something inexpensive to make a transition to tablets.

i dunno that goin "cheap and unfancy" is always the best way to go just becuz ur new to a tablet and such.. i bearly ever drew total complete works unless it was required in class.. and i got a tablet and in a week or so... i say ive gotten over looking up and stuff.. do a search on some shop comparison sites.. from what i know theres wacom of course, aitek or something.. im sure there are a few others.. shop around..



[This message has been edited by chudzta (edited 01-03-2003).]

Well, I go a Wacom Artz II Tablet for $50 on Ebay. It works great!

How cheap? Whats your budget for a tablet?

I'm not very experienced in the tablet area, and am still awaiting mine from the UPS man anyday now, but the type of tablet that you buy depends on several things including the size that you usually draw and paint. When I draw, I usually do small, short lines, which is why when I was shopping for a tablet, I was originally going to but a Wacom GraphireII for $100 (I had a $130 limit). Then, though I realized that when I paint I have a medium to large sized brush stroke, and couldn't work withing in the GraphireII's 4*5 drawing area very easily, so I began to research other comanies that made tablets and found Aiptek. Their biggest tablet (12*9) fitted the size brush stroke that I had, and was only 120 dollars, and the 8*8 (or was it 8*6, I forgot) was only 80 dollars. They have 512 levels of pressure sensitivity (as opposed to the Wacoms 1024), but a higher resolution (by about 500 dpi), both of which (dpi and pressure sensitivity) are totally undistinguishable from one another in 99.99 percent of anything your doing. I ended up buying the 12*9 tablet by Aiptek for 130 dollars, but am wondering now if the Wacoms pen tilt feature and batteryless pens (as opposed to Aipteks batery operated pens) are worth the extra money.

So, do some research, depending on where you live, your local CompUSA should also have these tablets (Wacom and Aiptek). My friend has am Aiptek and loves it dearly.

Umm...Hope it was of some help, basically, do some research, theres another company that makes tablets, starts with a c, but forgot it's na,e.

Don't just go with Wacom because their the big guy in the industry, but don't go with Aiptek because their cheap, since youd be making sacrifices.

here - check out this Google search for digitizer tablets:

clicky

Perhaps you'll find something worthwhile and inexpensive...


Bodhi - Cell 617

I just got an Aiptek at comp USA. Haven't used it a lot but the first day I had it the air brush seemed to have tugged at my heart strings. Sweet! 120 dollars and you can carry it from home to office...installs like a sweet dream. It's LARGE sized. :-)

I sure don't see much wrong with it.

I am also looking at purchasing a Tablet. Right now I cartoon on paper, ink onto tracing paper and scan into Photoshop. Tweek and color from there. My question is, is it worth puchasing a tablet for the work I am doing or would it sit in the corner with the rest of the gadgets I just had to have?

Damien - My personal opinion would be, if you're looking for something as a "transitional" tablet, you need to anticipate how much you draw, doodle, or attempt to paint on the computer at this very moment.
If you do a lot of graphics work.... and you want to go full scale with starting to create things in Photoshop and other programs, you need to ask yourself........ if you don't use a tablet..... what else would you use?
With the exception of the mouse, you don't have a whole lot of options.
If you do a lot of drawing now (and have been for a while.... not a 2 month fluke)... then you will use a tablet.
Tablets are an incredibly powerful tool.
I was certain that I'd be using mine, so I sprung for the exact tablet I wanted, without ever trying one out.
I guess that sort of spoils my thought process for this whole discussion...
but regardless... my opinion, as I don't have experience with anything other than wacom intuos2's... is to get one of the small scale versions of it.

Lasher - Refer to my comments to Damien as well. I think after you became comfortable with the tablet, you'd find yourself starting to shift your efforts to doodle with the tablet instead. Besides, in the end it'll save you having to scan each little thing that you wanna mess around with, if you just paint or draw right into PS.
A small scale tablet, again, would be of use to you, in my opinion.

And if you end up setting it over in the corner after you buy it...
ermm..... email me.... and i'll give you my snail mail addy... and you can happily ship it off to me, and make more space in the corner for a different gadget..... =D


We've got a running FAQ on tablets... :FAQ:


FAQs n' Bits: Michael

The thing is, I can't really do many things that I could do if I had a tablet. And I do draw and doodle quite often. PLus, I'm not planning on doing anything larg to were I would need a large work area on the tablet. So maybe I should just get a 4 x 5.

Thank you Michael, your point is pretty much along the same line I was thinking. It would definately be a lot faster to start on the PC and skip a bunch of steps (inking, ect.). Even if I just use the tablet to clean up the lines, it must be a lot easier to do than with the mouse. The FAQ you mentioned has been quite helpfull as well, thank you.