The Digital Craft

Buy Bamboo Capture

So as I have been getting more and more into this world of online eduction I have been looking for a way to get the “white board effect” without having to actually film me using a whiteboard. I have done it before, with a small board that fits on my desk.  However, for a real planning session – I use my giant board attached to my wall.  I think I would at least need two cameras setup for the right effect.

SO:

The older Intuos3

I have been tossing the idea of buying a Wacom tablet for many months now.  I have, in the past had a professional Wacom tablet.  It was an older model and I never really latched on to it.  I loved the customization ability that came with the buttons on the pen and pad’s array of buttons.  I wanted it to do more drawing on the PC.  I found that I am much more skilled with a mouse than I am a pen (when drawing on a computer).  So it sat on a shelf and soon was given away.

This time my needs were for writing rather than drawing.  So I thought, “maybe I could get away with one of their consumer models (The Bamboo line)”.  I was worried that I would not have all the customization that I was given with the Intuos 3.

New Intous5

That problem led me to teeter on the decision of whether or not to buy the Intuos 5 for several hundred dollars or something from the Bamboo line for under $100.  Last week I finally made the leap of faith!

I picked up the Bamboo Capture. This is pretty much the second to the top of the Bamboo line.  I liked that this comes with touch capability.  I may never use that, but for an extra 10-15 bucks more than the model lower; why not?

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

I have to say that I love it.  I am very pleased…  I have yet to use it in a video series but after many trials and the use of the software that comes with it, “Autodesk Sketchbook” I am looking forward to introducing it in a video.

I will note that it takes some getting used to the hand-eye coordination when writing and trying to keep things in somewhat of a straight line.  That I am overcoming and I will be using this heavily in my upcoming courses.  (Yes I will be offering courses soon… sssshhhhh).

The device comes with 6 buttons all together.  2 on the stylus (the pen) and 4 on the pad itself.  Every button is extremely customizable.  You can make a button open a program, run a keyboard shortcut (crtl+shift+alt+s for example), and even turn on/off certain functionality of the device.

You can easily select whether or not you want to use the tablet across all your monitors, on a particular monitor, or even just a specific area on a monitor.

The pressure levels on this are not as responsive as the professional Intuos line, but for my dollar I am not complaining.

The only real complaint that I have with this device is the fact that it is in fact a wired device.  I would think that by now, something like this would be wireless.  Don’t let that get you down though!  There is a (slightly inconvenient) solution.  You may purchase a wireless kit from Wacom to transform the device into a wireless tablet.

While writing that last line I do want to note that I am happy that, though this is a wired device, the cable itself is not hardwired.  You can replace it, as it is simply a micro usb cable.  So that is handy.  You are not stuck with a “bricked device” if the cable shorts out.

Adobe Photoshop CS6

Before I sign off, I want to mention that while I am not a fan of tablets in general for drawing on a computer: that does not mean I do not think this is capable of performing the task.  I tested the device in the provided software as well as Adobe Photoshop CS6 and I believe that the only thing that would hinder you would be a slow system and/or lack of artistic talent

All in all 4 stars for this guy.