Product Review - Wacom "Bamboo" pen & touch tablet
I recently purchased a Wacom "Bamboo" pen and touch digitizing tablet for my computer. I had been primarily looking for a solution to a problem I have with arthritis in my hands and using a mouse or trackball. I remembered owning a small "touch pad" device years ago that you could use like the track pad on a laptop and could place it anywhere you like, even in your lap. What I found was a very interesting little tablet that works with both pen and touch input. Here are my thoughts on this device:
Disclaimer - I am in no way affiliated with nor compensated by Wacom and blah, blah, blah :cool:
What is it? - The Bamboo is a small digitizing tablet that works on both Mac and PC (no Linux as far as I know). It is connected to your computer by a USB cable, which is of sufficient length to allow you to put the tablet almost anywhere you like. I put it on the computer table in front of me, with the keyboard pushed away toward the monitor, when I am working in Lightroom or Photoshop in brush mode. If I am using the tablet as a gestural input device (using my fingers instead of a mouse or trackball) I will put it in my lap or on a very tiny table to my right. The tablet is 9.8" x 6.9" (249mm x 175mm). It can be configured for both right and left-handed use.
The surface of the tablet is sensitive to both pen (a pen is included) and touch. The pen has a pressure-sensitive (1024 levels) tip as well as a pressure-sensitive eraser on the other end. As you can see by my crude examples, you can vary the brush parameters by applying more or less pressure, which gives you a great deal of control over the brush or whatever tool you are using it for. In the picture, I am just painting with white over the image using the pen as a brush, then I turned it over and used the eraser end to reveal a texture layer underneath. PS CS4 and LR2 are the only applications I have tested this with, but the programs both understand the difference between the drawing end and the eraser end without my help.
If you like buttons you will love this device. There are four fully configurable buttons on the tablet and two more on the pen. You can pick whatever you want these buttons to do, including keystrokes and starting applications. There is an application that you can download from their web site called "Bamboo Dock", which is little launch pad widget (allows you to start up applications like Photoshop and Lightroom) with some cool apps, including "Free the Bird"... This can be opened by clicking the button you have assigned to it so you can do a lot right from the tablet. There are some drawing and doodling apps too.
If you look at my photo, you will see that the active area is marked with a line around it. The area inside that line is the touch-sensitive area, and the additional part on the outside of the line is the pen-sensitive area, so you have a little bit more working room when using the pen.
The pen is fully configurable, as are the touch functions. You can set the "feel" (sensitivity) of the pen and eraser, configure the two buttons on the pen, set the "double-click distance" (amount of pen tip travel required to send a double-click), and set the pen to either "pen" or "mouse" mode. The preferred mode is "pen" mode, in which there is a one-to-one relationship to your screen i.e., the upper left of the tablet is the upper left of the screen. This is the most natural way to use a pen and tablet, but the pen can also be set to "mouse" mode, in which it functions exactly like a mouse - when you lift the pen and move it your brush doesn't move until you put the pen back down. You may find that you use both modes, each for different situations.
The tablet can be configured to have either a right-hand of left-hand sense. In the left-hand mode, the tablet is turned so that the buttons are on the right. Very clever on their part.
The tablet touch response is configurable for pointer speed, pointer acceleration, double-tap time, and scrolling speed. In touch mode you can simply move your cursor around with one finger, scroll in any direction with two fingers, click and right-click by tapping or holding, and a lot of other options. Everyone is different and this device allows the user to set the pen and tablet preferences to their liking. It is a very flexible and user-friendly system once it set up the way you like it.
Since the pen works like a mouse on steroids, you can use the pen and tablet to completely replace your mouse, but I would not really suggest that this will happen. I personally find that I can get around my desktop or application windows faster with a mouse or trackball. When it comes to photo editing however, I use the pen exclusively. It becomes very intuitive. If you have never used a tablet or track-pad I think you will be amazed at how easy it is to fall in love with. All your life you have written and drawn with a pen or pencil and the computer hands you a bar of soap... "Here, draw with this now!"
Working with layers and masks in Photoshop is so much more intuitive with a pen. The pressure-sensitive nature of the pen allows for much more and much finer control over the brush stroke. You can assign any tool in your software to the pen and I find cloning to be much easier with it. Of course you can make your own hand-written signature with it.
How much? At $99 (retail) you really can't go wrong with this tablet. I would have paid this price even if it didn't support the pen (they offer a model that is touch only and one that is pen only also). At this entry level price you are not getting the real estate and extra precision of the more expensive models, but I think this is a great way to see whether a tablet is for you or not. The first time you use this tool in your workflow you just might be hooked...
