[eyewoo]

If you've used a tablet PC, I'd love to hear your reactions to it as a tool for drawing, painting, etc, with Photoshop. They are available with 2 GIG of RAM, so resolution-wise, they can match a desktop and tablet combo. I understand they have about half the preasure sensitivity, but I'm not sure that makes a great dal of difference. Any experience would be great to hear about....

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[b.hartz]

I hear similar talk in respect to the pressure sensitivity issue. I would also like to know more about this issue. I have to admit that I still raise my brow when I see someone using one. What will they think of next?!

[Dekard]

resolution-wise meaning, in photoshop correct? Because you will be limited to a 1024x768 resolution on almost all tablets currently. I had a Gateway M275 and loved it..Only problem was the Pentium M chip wasn't horsepower to run maya very easily, ended up selling the Tablet on ebay just recently and purchased a 17 inch laptop with a p4 3.06Ghz chip and use my wacom with it.
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[olduttycruff]

Ive never tried a Tablet PC but I have had a cintiq on my G5 and I must say it was an utter waste of time I was better off sticking to my Wacom tablet, talk about overated.

[eyewoo]

[Reakshun]

I bought a Cintiq 18xs about 3 months ago and its the best investment I've made frankly.

I can use my arm again.

I grew up drawing with ballpoints, brush pens and sharpies. So, to me, the Cintiq feels more natural because contrary to belief, you still need to draw direct.

I still use my little $100 (at the time) Graphire with my Dell labtop on location. That works just fine. I've tried Toshiba's tablet PC and I don't like it.

The reason for me is the angle at which it sits...HELLA AWKWARD.
It's like drawing inna flimsy sketchbook where you have to hold one half of the book,
so you can get your drawing stance right...if that makes sense?
I can't really press hard on it.
I can't lean my weight on the thing.
The screen feels kinda gushy almost ( i guess that explains the pressure sensitivity issue).
And I kinda like my keypad to the side of me...like everyone else is used to with the Wacoms.

My touch, I guess, just doesn't suit it.
I work at home ALOT these days...and time is critical. I still use paper...but, very minimally now. I take thumbnails and clean THEM up with my tablet in drawing programs...I don't even think about finishing drawings on paper anymore..WHY?? LOL!

If mobility is the issue, yeah, it's cool...but I'd suggest testing it to see how it FEELS.

[seburo]

i ended up getting a cintiq a bit ago, but am thinking of giving it up for some extra cash. if anyone you are interested, pm me and ill let you know when i have it listed on ebay.

it was pretty fun to use, but very uncompatible with the way i like to work. a few people tried it out and thought it was a blast but didnt have the money to take it off my hands.

[retro]

i own a stylistic 4110, it has a p3 800mhz and 256 mb ram. the speed is ok (even with 256 mb), i have no problems painting in painter or ps8 (though i have not tried to work bigger than about 2000x1200).

but there are a few issues that really trouble me. at first the diplay has too little contrast and has an overall very cool temp, also the visible angle is really a problem, because of the hue/contrast shift. the second thing is that is has only 256 levels of pressure, which is close to unusable despite the number sounding so high (i had an old graphire once, and even that imho sucked, though 512 pressure levels), it is no comparison to the a4 intuos2 i have at my home machine.

third thing is that you probably have to use protective covers if you dont want to waste your display i half a year, which makes the pressure issue and the colors even worse. i'm not sure about all those points on other tablet pcs, maybe even the new model 5010 (?) is better to use.


my advice to you would be to really go to a store and check it out first. bring your own photoshop cd and latest penabled wacom drivers

http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/what_is_penabled.cfm

if necessary. maybe all i said is different on other models, but maybe now you know what to look for.

hope that helps, ah and the forum on this site was good advice for me

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/

[eyewoo]

Thanks... great info....
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[Eric UNSL]

What store could you possibly go to for testing out wacom products like the tablet pc or cintiq? Graphires are the only thing I've seen in local electronics stores.
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[eyewoo]

I think retro was writing just about trying out the tablet PC. The technolgy comes from Wacom, but the actual tablet PCs are made by a number of different computer manufactures, so they would be available in computer stores. I don;t think Wacom even makes a tablet PC...
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[YVerloc]

re: tablet vs. cintiq.

I own both. I've had a cintiq 15x for several years. I've had a fujitsu stylistic tablet PC (with outdoor screen) for a year and a half.

In terms of mileage, I've gotten way more mileage out of the Cintiq. It's my workhorse. It was cheaper than my Tablet PC. It is more durable (my tablet didn't survive the plane trip to Siggraph last August). It is more powerful.

I was hurting really bad to be able to do digital painting outdoors. Unfortunately, I found out that tablet PC's simply don't cut it. Not yet anyhow.

Some people would say "don't get either, save your money" and they may be right. I love my Cintiq - it does a lot of things better than a regular tablet. But I use an Intuous 2 at work all day, and frankly I don't seem to miss the Cintiq too much. The low resolutioin and low pressure sensitivity of the Cintiq models erases a lot of the benefit that you get from drawing on top of the image.

YV

[YVerloc]

Oh, I forgot to mention the try-before-you-buy problem.

My advice would be to ignore the stores, and talk to people at the distibutors. They may have 'demo models' that aren't being demo'd at the moment.

YMMV, but here in Vancouver tablet PC's and Cintiqs are not carried inventory. In all of Vancouver, I found exactly one tablet on display - a crappy Acer model. Maybe they're more common now - dunno. For my tablet, I did a lot of research on line, but ultimately I had to suck it up and buy it sight unseen. I had more luck with the Cintiq - I contacted a distibutor, and they had a demo model that was lent to me for a week. Maybe you could find something similar.

YV

[eyewoo]

YVerloc... Thanks for your advice.

You know, rather than putting my money into more equipment, I may purchase a Tempur-pedic mattress and get better sleep at night. That will probably help my work more than a Cintiq or Tablet PC...
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[digitaldecoy]

That�s a twisted thing with these Cintiq Tablets. I own a 18SX and I just love it. I think, working directly on top of the display ist the way to go and in this respect the Cintiq is far beyond regular tablets. The only problem is that we are talking about a technology that today is about four years old and four years is a lot in the hardware world. Technically the Cintiq uses the components of the Ultra Pad series which means 512 pressure levels 508 lpi resolution and no tilt sensitivity. With the advent of the Intuos3 tablet generation Cintiq finally looks a bit old fashioned today (Intuos3: 1024 levels of pressure, 5080 lpi resolution -> 10 times Cintiq! and tilt sensitivity). And that�s the point - from an ergonomical point of view the Cintiq is the most advanced tablet system available but it�s tech specs are outdated. A hard decision to make if it is worth the money. I do not regret to have bought one but I�m surely looking forward to a new generation of Cintiq tablets. What these would be like I just can dream of - an �ber-tablet I guess...
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[digitaldecoy]

... and man, who would have expected it to happen SO soon!

Wacom Cintiq 21 UX:







That�s just great! It is 100% compatible with the intuos3 (same pressure levels, tilt sensitive, high resolution) and runs on 1600x1200 Pixels resolution. That�s huge!
And in their press release WACOM says that it will sell for the same price as the 18SX!
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[olduttycruff]

I just hope they work out that annoying lag. I wouldnt trade my Intuos 2 in yet. My first experience with a loaner Cintiq was 5 hours of my life that I wish I had back

[digitaldecoy]

I think the lag-issue is overrated. Working with a 18 SX for about 4 month now I would say that it takes only a few minutes to get used to the slight lag of the brushstroke. If you are working fast it does not really matter if the brushstroke reaches always exactly under your cursor because you judge your stroke by the position of the pen tip and not the stroke itself. At least, that�s what I experience. If there was anything to improve with the cintiq then it definetly was the resolution. I�m for example not able to accurately draw with a 3Pixel-Brush in 100% zoom. You always get little zigzags in your stroke because of the small resolution. The 21UX has ten times the resolution of the 18SX - I guess that should do the job nicely...
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