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Harry Potter · junior member Member # Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 27

Is it worth to buy Wacom Cintiq (small one-15') ?

YVerloc · Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2003 9:09 pm

Depends what you want it for, doesn't it?

If you're a pro digital illustrator, maybe not. Max screen size is only 1024*768, so It'd be a bit painstaking to do anything in print res. If you're a newb learning, paper's a better teacher, and a lot cheaper too. Concept designers may find it useful. If they can wean their clients or bosses off of the gimmicky Art Center marker-and-ink concept drawing style that is.

If you're patient, you may want to wait for the second generation of Tablet PC's. Acer has announced that it's going to deliver a tablet PC with a 14.1 inch screen in Q2. Imagine a slightly smaller Cintiq that you can take anywhere.

I've had a Cintiq since last spring, and have used it eight hours a day every work day since, so it's a fairly robust unit if nothing else. I use it mostly for doing concept designs and as my main display for everything else (modeling and texturing).

YV

Harry Potter · junior member Member # Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 27

I am student who is doing a lot of work everyday.
My credit Card company is giving me Some money with 0%interest, so I am thinking to make some purchases. My PC is old now (P450, 256 Ram), but it works just fine with Illustrator 10 and Photoshop 7 and Combustion 2.
I was already looking at TablePCs, and they are very expensive and have slow processors + it is laptop (I have IBM laptop which I dropped several times).

I saw very nice system from Sony
Sony VAIO Slimtop PCV-LX900 XP Pen Tablet ........for 1,000....but I have no idea how good the screen is and what is the pressure sensetivity
http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/review/0,12070,459901,00.html

eyewoo · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 7:27 am

YV... question about the Cintiq. When I'm working with my tablet in Photoshop, I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts - like pressing "E" to instantly turn the stylus into an eraser and "B" to turn it back to the brush I'm using.

Draw - erase - draw - draw - erase - draw - draw - erase - draw - etc.

It's a great way of working and doesn't involve having to flip the stylus around to erase. so... the question... can a keyboard be attached to the Cintiq so keyboard shortcuts can be used?
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dr . bang · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 7:35 am

Francis · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 8:27 am

Philip - we had one in our studio a while back for evaluation. If I remember right, it is essentially a monitor, so you can still use all your keyboard shortcuts. It was really nice.
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eyewoo · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 1:07 pm

YVerloc · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 3:55 pm

Eyewoo,

When you say "never have to move the stylus tip away from the point of drawing" do you mean that you toggle between eraser and brush without lifting the pen tip from the tablet surface? If so I find it hard to beleive... I tried it on the Cintiq, and it was a no-go for me, anyhow. To toggle between E and B, I have to lift the pen tip from the surface, but not out of range of the tablet sensor.

One thing about the Cintiq is that it regularily 'locks up' the keyboard. Like you, I always have a hand on the keyboard working the E B [ ] etc. Sometimes, as I'm working away, I notice that the keyboard is simply not responding. If I tap the tablet surface with my pen, that clears it up and I'm back to work. This used to happen occasionally on my old Intuous II. But it seems to me that it happens a lot more frequently with the Cintiq. I've found it a manageable nuisance though, so It doesn't bug me too much.

To answer your ealier question, Francis is right. It's just a monitor with a tablet built into it. So keyboard use is not affected in any way.

YV

eyewoo · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:02 pm

YV... Switching between Eraser and Brush does require lifting the pen just off the surface for a brief moment... but essentially you keep the brush in the exact same spot as the switch takes place. It provides a very fluid way of working with line drawings.
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dr . bang · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 6:20 pm

please excuse me me Embarassed

i just lost a few of my pron vids so i get a bit touchy.
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eyewoo · Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 8:15 pm

no problem... I figger'd... you still bang, bang!
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MadSamoan · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 6:35 pm

I use one (well, a PL400, which is before they branded it the 'Cintiq'). They're a neat toy, but that's about it. Definitely not worth the money even after the price reductions they've gone through over the last couple of years. The LCD monitor isn't color accurate and I have to drag the image I'm working on onto my second monitor just to make sure my colors aren't too drab or too saturated. The limited resolution also doesn't make it ideal if your work is for printing purposes, but if your final output is for digital medium like video games in my case, it's fine. Also, the DVI input it uses limits the types of video cards you can use with it or in some cases you have to use two separate cards. I like using it and it's a great conversational piece at the office, but I could use a regular Wacom and not miss it one single bit. If you're a student, I would invest my money on a normal Wacom at a size that you're happy with and better hardware like RAM, video card, etc..