Hooray! I found an affordable Wacom on Ebay! This is culmination of many days research on the subject, and constant scanning, bidding, attempted sniping and losing on Ebay. I feel like my new knowledge about Mac OS X and the humble graphics tablet should not be kept to myself, so I’ll relate to you my story.
If you didn’t know, graphics tablets are great. Great for artists but also for video editors. Once you’ve started using them as an extra limb, there is simply no going back to a mouse. I was privileged to have worked in the last two places with firstly an A4 wide screen Intuos 3 (top of the range!) and secondly with a sprawling, impressive Intuos2 A3. The latter made artists gasp with awe on sight. I also firmly believe an over sized graphics tablet creates a shimmering aura of professionalism and creativity that makes producers more respectful and unquestioning of your work. Handy.
Now I am freelance and poor I have been reduced to a paltry logitech mouse. It makes an unpleasant scraping noise against my desk. So, I decided to get myself a tablet.
Any review is likely to award the Wacom series of tablets top marks, almost always eclipsing over lesser brands. Digital Arts magazine, always a gushing Wacom fan, shows their review with percentages on this page. So, it has to be a Wacom, which leaves roughly 3 types.
So, a Volito? Here from Wacom’s page is some introductory copy:
“Whether it’s invitations, birthday cards or creative holiday photos - you can now add your personal touch on the PC”.
No, No, No, No. I recoil in horror that I might be the kind of person to personalise birthday cards. Also, they may try and hide it in the description but it is an “entry level” product. Entry level? Is my life entry level? Is my work entry level? NO! All product developers must know that the bottom range in any line exists to make consumers seek the more expensive one, after all, who values themselves so little!
For budgetry concerns I also researched second hand, older Wacom tablets and consensus on the web is that older Intuos, or even graphire are almost as good as the lastest models. One concern is that you have to be careful of is the connectors. Apple and Wacom no longer support serial and ADB tablets (via USB conversion) on OS X. There a some open source software that enables the serial Wacoms here, but it looks a little risky. This is tough as those tablets are still very usable on older OS’s and are very attractively priced on Ebay. Quite a few people get caught out. The benefit too, of USB is that they don’t require an extra power supply.
Finally the size. A6 (the smallest) is rather small for lots of desk work, but I travel a lot and can compromise. A5 or A4 is what most regular users would want, and A3 is for showoffs.
Ebay tactics have involved searching the “All sellers” to bring up tablets available in Europe, which are overlooked in the standard ebay.co.uk search, checking for tablets wrongly, or sparsely identified, tablets in misplaced categories, and the standard search “find a seller who doesn’t know how extortionately priced these things are”. The last tactic was the winner, a DVD salesman who included a 20 pound “Buy it now” which I nabbed after the item had only been live a few hours. It’s an A6 intuos 2, USB and including pen (some of the older ones were bundled with a mouse OR pen although both devices will work). If you find a tablet without a pen, ignoring that it might be damaged, be warned that the pens themselves can cost 70 UKP! So, don’t fall for false economy. Hope this has been useful to someone, I am available for Wacom purchase consultation, at a very affordable rate.