|Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet
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| Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet | |||||||||||||||
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Product Description |
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Measuring 9.8 by 6.9 inches, the Bamboo Pen is compact enough to store comfortably in a laptop case. It features a large and responsive active area, providing enough workspace for even your most ambitious projects. The tablet comes with a battery-free pen with an easy-grip design, so you can have maximum control over your drawing. The work surface is textured, providing a pen-on-paper feel. It's also reversible, so you can use it comfortably whether you're right- or left-handed. The Bamboo Pen is simple to set up, using a plug-and-play mechanism. Simply plug the tablet into your computer via a USB port, install the provided drivers, and you're ready to go. You'll be doodling, writing, and painting in minutes. Expand Your Creative Horizons with Precise Pen Technology The pen features 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, giving your artwork a level of nuance that just isn't possible when you're using a mouse. You can use the pressure-sensitive control to vary line thickness, add shading, and control boldness. When used in combination with the included Corel Painter Essentials 4.0, the tablet becomes an even more powerful artistic tool. Bamboo Pen is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (Service Pack 2) and Mac OS X (10.4.8 or higher.) It requires a powered USB drive, a colored screen, and a CD/DVD drive. What's in the Box Bamboo Pen tablet, Bamboo Pen pen, Quick Start guide, installation CD (includes driver software, interactive tutorial, and user's manual), software CD. | |||||||||||||||
Product Details
- Battery-free, ergonomic pen with two programmable switches
- Includes Corel Painter Essentials 4.0 (Win and Mac) for creating natural media art and turning photos into paintings
- Easy USB connection
- Interactive tutorial helps you make the most of your Bamboo
Video Reviews
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Customer Reviews
 Works very well - a big learning curve |
| Review Date: October 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Bobbie - "Andromeda's Gramma", United States |
| Do you remember when computers first came out and you had to go through a tutorial to use a mouse? Well, when I set up my pen, I felt like I was back in those days. Everything I've spent the last 15 years doing had to be rethought, and I went through the tutorials to learn it all over again.
The pen will / and does replace the mouse if you want to use it that way. You hold it in your hand like a pen, and move it across the tablet (which represents your screen). You don't have to roll it across the screen like a mouse, instead, each area of the tablet represents an area of the screen, and once you put the pen down, you are in the correct place on the screen. If you want to see where your cursor is going, you don't have to touch the tablet, you simply keep the pen slightly above the tablet to make it work. You can click, drag, right click (with the button on the pen): anything you can do with a mouse, you can do with this more precise instrument. Best of all, the pen itself does not have a battery that will wear out. But, where it shines is that it recognizes your handwriting and will convert it to text. Like the voice recognition software, you can work with it to help it recognize it better, but unless you have outrageously sloppy handwriting, it does a good job. In Microsoft Word, when you hover the pen over the paper, you are given a palette where you can write words, then click to insert. [I have uploaded two photos to show you how it works.] You can use this feature on most programs, including e-mail. So, technically, the pen and tablet can completely eliminate the keyboard. I say technically, because I found it slower to try to use it, especially the writing portion. With a typing speed of over 100 wpm, writing has always been slow for me. But, if someone doesn't know the keyboard, it could actually be faster. It comes with Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac) and using this software (or other draw software), you can create your own drawings and export them into digital files. Because the cost of this software runs $30-$40, it makes this a very good value! I enjoy the Corel Painter Essentials (I use much of the corel software), because it can also do a wonderful job of converting photos to paintings, chalk drawings, etc. Tutorials are included for this software as well. If you use your pen in conjunction with the software, you can create details to be included a lot easier than you can simply using your mouse. Pros: Easy to use, a great value, and good software included! Pen does not have the repetitive action of the mouse and I found it to be easy on my wrists - I am at risk for carpal tunnel, and that's a critical issue. The pen is very sensitive to touch and works well in the painting program. The tutorial for the pen comes with a fun British accent, and it does a wonderful job of walking you through the basics. Cons: Pen must be at the correct angle to be recognized. It means the pad must be in a location where you can easily write on it. (I often use a laptop, and this is a key issue) High learning curve for beginners to use the tablet in place of a mouse Unless you are doing detailed drawings or need to write with it, most of the functions can be handled easily by a mouse. The hardest part about writing this review is that I'm worried that even 2-3 years from now everyone will have tablets, and they will laugh at me and my difficulty in learning this tool. I will continue to use it, and will practice with it a lot in the drawing software, but for now will most likely depend upon my faithful mouse (trackball actually)to do most of my computing work and save the Pen/Pad for what it does best. It's a great tool and does everything it is supposed to do! And, even someone in my age bracket can learn to use it. ***Edited*** The fun part about new things is that you learn a lot about the "old things" you didn't use on your computer. One of these things is the "journal" on my computer. By right-clicking the desktop and choosing "New Journal Page" you create a document that you can use to store information, including pen-created items. You can utilize it for handwriting recognition, or you can copy and paste your handwriting into another document, including Word and e-mails. (think signature) Another fun capability I wasn't aware of was in Powerpoint. Once you are in a presentation, you can use a control P command to create a pen and mark up the screen of a presentation. In a sense, this can replace the old "overheads" we used to mark up in presentations. Obviously, it's a lot easier to do this with a pen than a mouse. All of the instructions said that marking up documents was possible. I followed Wacom's instructions - the correct location is under the review tab, there is a tab marked "start inking." This tab did NOT appear in Microsoft Word for me when I originally installed the tablet software. After uninstalling the software that shipped with the tablet and re-installing the newest driver directly from Wacom, the tab appears. By turning ink on, I can now mark up documents and work directly in Microsoft Word. [I have included a photo above to demonstrate the mark-up that is possible.] The more I learn, the more I like the tablet! I keep my trackball handy, but I'm using the tablet more and more for small things. |
| Hesitant at First |
| Review Date: December 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. A. Cedar, TUCSON, AZ, US |
| At first, I was looking for a new mouse, since my old one needed replacing. I have bad arthritis, so comfort & ease of use was very important. I bought the Logitech Trackman Wheel and I absolutely loved it. I hadn't even considered a tablet device, as the last time I looked around they were a bit pricy. I ran across the Wacom Bamboo, & saw it was for well under $100!? Too good to be true I figured. I always research things I buy, so I looked around. Not only is the Wacom Bamboo very affordable, but the reviews all gave praise. My concern was that If I got a tablet, it would need to replace both the mouse & keyboard. Too much switching around is just too painful for me. I bought the Wacom Bamboo straight through Amazon as I have always had great service. I'm running a desktop w/ Windows 7, & the install was fast & easy. Well, it's been a week since I got it, & I haven't even touched my keyboard. The tablet/pen makes browsing, email & everything imaginable so fast, precise & easy. As I can sit back & comfortably use the tablet on its' own box to jump around & write, do graphics and 3D CAD.... the pain for me is substantially less.
Writing is very easy, corrections are software intuitive & a breeze. You can teach it your Writing style & it will continuously learn. Enough settings so you can get it to perform as you like it, but not get lost confused with them. I wrote this whole review on the tablet in just a few minutes. This tablet is not just for graphic designers & such! Honestly, make your computing life easier, buy a Bamboo & you will soon be bragging to your friends & family how great it is! I an not affiliated with the company, it's just the BEST money I have EVER spent on any computer peripheral. |
| Great Tablet |
| Review Date: January 4, 2010 |
| Reviewer: ZoomZoom, St. Helens, OR United States |
| Highly recommended. This is well worth the money and all I need. I do retouching and Photoshop work for a living and this tablet and resolution works fine for me. I do not miss the more expensive WACOM Intuos 6x9 brand tablet that I used at work. The small size is perfect and I don't have to move my arm great distances to move the cursor across the screen. I don't like to program dials and buttons either and this tablet is clean and simple. |
| Great price for a useful tool |
| Review Date: January 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jared Vorkavich, Columbus, OH United States |
| First the bottom line: If you can't afford an Intuos or need something smaller to travel with, buy one. It's the best pen tablet on the market for the money. The only thing you won't like is that it scratches easily.
I also own the Wacom Intuos 3, but I purchased the Bamboo so that I'd have something smaller to travel with. It exceeded my expectations. It's every bit as responsive as the Intuos 3 for everyday tasks (although I haven't tried any serious photo retouching yet). Because of its small size, it's not as comfortable as the larger Intuos tablet, but it still saves my wrists from the horrors of using a mouse all day. If you're used to the Intuos, you'll notice that the surface of the Bamboo has a little texture too it, so the pen doesn't glide as smoothly across the surface. I like the feel of the Intuos better, but the Bamboo still feels good in my hand. The only thing I don't like is that it scratches easily--especially on the shiny black part. It was scratched within the first day of use. The scratches are just cosmetic, but I suggest getting some kind of case or sleeve to pack it in. I've just gotten used to it being a little rough looking, and I'm fine with that. |
| perfect for beginners |
| Review Date: February 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: jeng, York, PA United States |
| I bought this for my daughter, who is just starting to get into animating and drawing digitally. It has far exceeded expectations. She got it installed quickly and once she was convinced to actually read the instructions and use the disk that came with it, her use quadrupled. She has been very satisfied with how it works and hasn't found any quirks she can't work around; her only "complaint" is that the controls are different than similar things she's worked with at school. Overall it's an excellent value if you're looking for a beginner tool! |
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