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Must have for Blender, Zbrush, or texture artist.

Name:	James Brad Barnette
Date Posted:	Aug 15, 2007
Rating:	4.0 out of 5
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I'm not one for pedaling things but I had to let people know about this. As you blender and ZBrush guys know Digital Sculpting is the way of the future for Video games. It allows our characters to have so much realism and detail. The one thing about this is Tablets are freaking expensive! I have been a Wacom Tablet user for well over a decade. While they are nice tablets, they are very expensive. Well I was getting ready to start on an instructional video and I wanted to get a second tablet. "I own 1 Wacom 9x12" Well I had read about this tablet called the PenSketch 9x12 from Genius in a tablet shootout in 3D World magazine. It bested all of the Wacom tablets in a shootout. And the price $199 "at the time of the article, keep reading it gets way better!" well I didn't think much of that till I need a second tablet and the cheapest I could find another 9x12 Wacom was for $449. While cheaper than I originally paid for mine it is still pretty steep. Well I decided to check this place that I buy a lot of other stuff "one of the largest internet sellers out there" and what did I find? A PenSketch 9x12 for $129. I showed a couple of the other artist in the office and I think like 5 of us ordered them.

Well I got mine in last week and let me say I was skeptical but wow. This is actually better than my Wacom Intuos pad!!!! The sensitivity is Awesome!

Here if you have been looking to get a tablet give it a shot Click Here

I hope that this helps some of you guys out. I know I like mine better than my trusty ol Wacom.
The only feature that I can find that is missing is that the drive doesn't seem to give you per application settings like the Wacom. But honestly I haven't missed it. The pressure sensitivity is so much better than my Wacom I haven't needed to have different profiles.

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List:	03/27/08 - NEW CrazyBump release This is a must have for all TGEA users 08/15/07 - Must have for Blender, Zbrush, or texture artist.

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DodongoXP (Aug 15, 2007 at 01:41 GMT)

i had a genius tablet ..a slighly smaller model than that of the link but of the mousepen series... and i learned that you must buy something good or dont do it.. because it wasnt really good, had really serious precision issues and too much problems and bugs on it made a real pain to use it.. my actual cordless laser mouse is like 10 times more precise than the tablet i had

ive never had a wacom tablet so i cant say anything.. but i suppose if you need a tablet go with a good one.. or you may regret it as i did

nice to hear the pensketch series products is of good quality because the mousepens surely werent

Cheers

Ethan Groves (Aug 15, 2007 at 12:07 GMT)

Too bad it isn't compatible with a mac... :(

Unsung Zero (Aug 15, 2007 at 12:25 GMT)

Froogle shows a lowest price of $122.53
New Egg also has it for $129.99, though it's received poor reviews there. (EDIT: They're sold out.)

You can also pickup a Wacom Graphire4 4x5 for $50 after rebate. Expires August 18th 2007.
Edited on Aug 15, 2007 13:39 GMT

James Brad Barnette (Aug 15, 2007 at 14:18 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

the precision on this one is excellent and the pressure sensitivity is actually better than my Wacom Intuos 9x12 All of the ones we ordered are performing perfectly. Better than we could have hoped for.
Edited on Aug 15, 2007 14:22 GMT

David Montgomery-Blake (Aug 15, 2007 at 14:55 GMT)

The Mac compatible tablets were supposed to be available in March. I had always wondered about the competition for tablets. I have a Tablet PC and an Intuos, so I don't need another one. But my fiance is interested in picking one up. Since I move between the Mac and PC, I need dual-capability. The Intuos gave me that in spades.

Mark Berry (Aug 15, 2007 at 15:24 GMT)

I'm still waiting for a cost effective flat panel with a pen. The Wacom ones are beginning to look a little dated, plus they lag somewhat. I first tried a pen/panel on an Archimedes computer (remember them?) and although the colour depth and resolution have gotten better, they still lag.

Frank Carney (Aug 24, 2007 at 22:07 GMT)

I use a tablet under Linux, so this is not really useful to me as a product. If they had Linux drivers I would be interested.

Rene Damm (Apr 12, 2008 at 06:06 GMT)

Talk about posting with a delay, but just have to get rid of this:

The one *HUGE* disadvantage all other tablet makers have compared to Wacom is the batteries they need for the pens. Wacom has this patented stuff that allows them to operate completely without any power source needed in the pen, which I think is a big thing.

I don't particularly like Wacom even if it may just be for the fact that they basically have a monopoly on this market (and looking at their prices, they make good use of that fact), but still, their technology is not easy to compete with.

James Brad Barnette (Apr 12, 2008 at 14:14 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

@Frank Carney

Actuallyt here ware linux drives for this at least for ubuntu I know. The onely platform the does not ahve linux drives that I know of is AMD64.

@Rene I have had the same batteries in my tablet since the day I got it. and it still works great. To be honest I like that way that it adds some weight to the pen. It feels better in my hand that the wacom. I have noticed that the sensitity has shifted somewhat since I got it but nothing that the drived could not account for. " it got more sensitive".

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