To Wacom, or not to Wacom

[Ian H]

The Wacom Bamboo can be used as a track pad as well, so you can really throw the mouse away.

[Manfred M]

The Wacom Bamboo can be used as a track pad as well, so you can really throw the mouse away.

Actually, so can the Wacom Pro line, but it is a feature I don't a lot.

[DanK]

I've had a little one sitting next to my printer, unused, for a couple of years. This will inspire me to learn how to use it.

[PRSearls]

I have a small Wacom tablet that saw little use for many years. I watched a Wacom tablet presentation given by Dave Cross on Creative Live. It inspired me to try it again. It resulted in me buying the Intuos Pro Medium. Mr. Cross, who has taught tablet use for years, said the best way to learn it is to use it for everything. Put away the mouse. He was right although it seems awkward at first. It took me about two weeks to get the hand-eye-screen coordination to feel natural. I love it. Modern tablets have many features that allow customization of the pen, button controls and finger gestures for all or specific software programs. From my experience, I would recommend you use the tablet for ALL applications.

[Manfred M]

I have a small Wacom tablet that saw little use for many years. I watched a Wacom tablet presentation given by Dave Cross on Creative Live. It inspired me to try it again. It resulted in me buying the Intuos Pro Medium. Mr. Cross, who has taught tablet use for years, said the best way to learn it is to use it for everything. Put away the mouse. He was right although it seems awkward at first. It took me about two weeks to get the hand-eye-screen coordination to feel natural. I love it. Modern tablets have many features that allow customization of the pen, button controls and finger gestures for all or specific software programs. From my experience, I would recommend you use the tablet for ALL applications.

Paul - while I have a lot of respect for Dave Cross as a photographer, I don't agree with him that a tablet can or even should replace the mouse. My original Wacom 3 tablet shipped with both a stylus and a mouse (that only worked when used on the tablet surface).

Both are tools and they have places where they shine and places where using them is sub-optimal. Just like a hammer is good for driving in nails and a screwdriver is good for putting in screws. A screwdriver does not do a great job in hammering nails nor is a hammer a great tool when using screws.