Photo Restoration Blog

My last post was bout software and reference and scanners this one is about graphics tablets.

Ive been around long enough to know that a tablet will help you with any design, art, photography or film based application, amateur or professional. I grew up with a mouse, a three button BBC micro computer mouse! It was cream and had 3 red buttons, nice! Ever since then Ive used a mouse. I’m not proud of my stubbornness to change, its just that i’ve been really good with a mouse. A laser mouse on a precise mouse mat with a clever little program I found to smooth your mouse strokes made me as good as anyone with a tablet or so i thought. Yeah fine I could do things everyone else could do but maybe when it came to shading or building up texture it may have taken a little longer.

The mouse falls down where you need to stroke through a brush line, or build up texture or shadow, oh sure you can just set the sensitivity low and build up slowly which is how ive done it for years but its so much nicer with a tablet.

I looked at various reviews of  the Trust Canvas Widescreen, but ruled that one out as it has no drivers for my operating system. I looked at the Hanovan Artmaster III which looked great but there were no real reviews in English and I was loathed to buy a Wacom, after all the world couldn’t all be about Wacom could it. Well thats all that was left in the game at this stage. I understood that some older versions were available on ebay but a bidding frenzy would always ensue and be up at the price range or reconditioned latest versions. I then had the good fortune to find a Intuos 4m on a website with a damaged box but still with warranty. There is no point paying the full price is there.

Image from Wacoms image library

Wacom Intuos4 PTK-640 Medium A5 Graphics Tablet

Well all i can say is wow! Its great, sure it takes a little getting used to but now its like Ive never gone without. If you haven’t got one get one you wont regret it! If you want a full review of this tablet there tons of the out there, this was just a short story of how i came to buy one!

I mainly bought it to help with my restoration and retouching but here is a quick painting i did.

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