Pen & Tablet for Lightroom / PS

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Hi Guys,
looking for a bit of advice. I'm thinking of asking for a tablet to use when editing my photos as a Christmas present. I think maybe max budget of around 50-60 pounds (is this enough?)

I know of Wacom products, but have never actually used them, so my questions are:
1) Is it worth getting one?
2) Is the budget high enough.
3) Can you recommend any particular model or one to avoid

If it makes any difference (I doubt it) this will be connected to my MB Pro.

Thanks
 
I think the Wacom tablets are the way to go, I use a Intuos Pro (Medium) and it is excellent.

On your budget though you will have to look at one of the entry levels such as the Intuos Pen and Touch (small) :

http://www.wacom.com/en-gb/products/pen-tablets/intuos-pen-and-touch-small

This will still be slightly over budget at £70 (if you shop around).

All tablets take time to get used to but once you're used to them they offer a lot of benefits over and mouse especially in photoshop etc.
 
Thanks, I wasn't sure how much they should / would cost as I had no idea which model to look at really. I'm sure I could stretch it a bit (or a lot!) if needed. I might even look to just buy it here in Canada instead (it was going to be a present from someone in the UK) So maybe just ask them for the cash and convert it to $ and buy. :)
 
Can you believe I replaced a Wacom Intuos 1 for an Intuos 4 and am having nothing but driver problems with it? I'm beginning to think I should have gone for a Huion H610 Pro or better. Huion are their cheaper alternative. OCUK don't do these :
http://www.huion-tablet.com/

The Wacom driver only works 50% of the time and you have to keep rebooting and hope it works. The only way around this is to type "services" in the Run task bar and right click and find and restart "Wacom Professional service". At least this way you don't have to keep restarting your PC over a bug that has existed for 10 years.
 
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Lol, forgot to include the name which I have now edited. No. Huion are a competitor to Wacom. Cheaper and presumably without the driver problems associated with Wacom. Just to illustrate the point, here is part of a review from someone who went from a Wacom tablet to one from Huion:
A year or two ago, I started having terrible luck with drivers. Wacom went crazy and decided all their tablets should have the same driver, and nixed any features that weren't incredibly vague. One of the features that didn't make the cut was my tablet's pen calibration settings. Even better, the driver sucks with Windows 7, and competes with the default driver (which surprisingly sucks more). The only driver that didn't have this problem is a Graphire driver from the XP days, but that's a whole different can of worms.

So I declared my tablet obsolete and shopped for a new Wacom. Turns out, they ALL have similar problems except for the newest Intuos line. That one finally got a good Windows 7/8 driver, but the rest are SOL.
Click to expand...
More of the same:

http://www.amazon.com/Huion-H610-Graphics-Drawing-Tablet/product-reviews/B00GIGGS6A
 
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Ahh, it was the line "huion are their cheaper alternative" seemed like you were saying that they were an offshoot of Wacom, like Asus to ASRock.

Those Huion tablets look pretty good, and the price seemed too good to be true before I checked out some reviews. Thanks for mentioning them, I'll be picking up their 1060pro+ in the near future.
 
ethan said:
I should have gone for a Huion H610 Pro or better. Huion are their cheaper alternative. OCUK don't do these :
http://www.huion-tablet.com/
Click to expand...

ethan said:
http://www.amazon.com/Huion-H610-Graphics-Drawing-Tablet/product-reviews/B00GIGGS6A
Click to expand...

spoffle said:
Ahh, it was the line "huion are their cheaper alternative" seemed like you were saying that they were an offshoot of Wacom, like Asus to ASRock.

Those Huion tablets look pretty good, and the price seemed too good to be true before I checked out some reviews. Thanks for mentioning them, I'll be picking up their 1060pro+ in the near future.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, for the price I'll definitely give the Huion a good look. :)
 
ethan said:
Can you believe I replaced a Wacom Intuos 1 for an Intuos 4 and am having nothing but driver problems with it? I'm beginning to think I should have gone for a Huion H610 Pro or better. Huion are their cheaper alternative. OCUK don't do these :
http://www.huion-tablet.com/

The Wacom driver only works 50% of the time and you have to keep rebooting and hope it works. The only way around this is to type "services" in the Run task bar and right click and find and restart "Wacom Professional service". At least this way you don't have to keep restarting your PC over a bug that has existed for 10 years.
Click to expand...

I use the Intuos 5 and haven't had a driver issue with it or the version I had before under Windows 7. The Huion looks good value though but I've never used one so wouldn't be able to comment on the quality etc.
 
Intuos pro medium user here too. Can't fault it. Takes a bit to get used to but having packed it away due to moving and trying to do a quick edit with a mouse. I can now say that editing with a mouse is like trying to thread a needle wearing boxing gloves
 
Thanks guys, I've just seen that Costco stock Wacom, and they are just up the road from me, so I will go and see if they have some out on display / holdable and have a play. For the price though I might need to look at the Huion as it will be a present.

Appreciate the time taken to reply. Thanks again.
 
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I have a Wacom bamboo, it's cheap and small enough to share the desktop. Problem is I just found it quicker to work with Lightroom with a mouse. Photoshop where brush strokes are required makes sense, but moving sliders around plus other controls and moving things around in libraries I find much easier with a mouse.
 
Another vote for cheap and cheery as well. I have a Wacom Bamboo which is plenty big work area even though it's relevantly small. I didn't use it after i bought it for probably a year as i couldn't get on with it. Forced myself to use it for several days, just regular desktop use then Lightroom and Photoshop. Now using anything apart from a tablet in LR and PS just feels alien and slow.
 
Just got a Intuos Medium Pro and am impressed. Got it for a silly price at the Amazon Black Friday deals.
 
I picked up an Intuos Pen & Touch on Amazon Black Friday and installed it last night. It's great. Want to give illustration work a proper go :)
 
Quick update and thanks for the advice guys. I've ordered a Huion 610pro. Should be with me on Tuesday :)
 
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