Drawing/Graphics Pad?

[petridish]

Hello photo and video people!

While not strictly photo or video I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me out here. I'm looking for a reasonable digital drawing pad for my fiancee and don't really know anything about them, other than maybe having heard of one or two brands 10-15 years ago.

She wants to get into creating some digital art and prints so I'd like to set her up with something cheap but good initially (probably second hand) until she gets into it and then maybe upgrade to something more professional if the desire is still there a few months down the line.

Does anyone have and use one that they could point me in the right direction? What to look out for and what sort of prices to expect, things like that. Thanks in advance!

 

[petridish]

So Wacom was one of the brands I'd heard of, good to know they're still with looking into.

Doing a bit of research it looks like you can now get pads with a screen built into then, are these worth considering? I imagine looking at what you're drawing is more natural but there'd also be some distortion/refraction through the glass that would make it more difficult for fine detail?

 

[petridish]

Thank you all for the replies. Sounds like I've got a bit of review watching to do over the long weekend. I think as good as the iPad route might be I don't want to drop that kind of money on it just yet. Better to check she sticks with it before investing heavily.

I think the approach I might take is to try and get a cheaper, non screen one initially and if she really doesn't get on with looking away from where she's drawing then we can look at the fancier stuff as a second option. Those huion's certainly look nice from the marketing images.