Drawing tablet experiences to know what to buy

[--NightBattery--]

Hi guys (you guise) ._.
Remember me?
i used to come here often and stay in the sleepovers, how wouldn't you? sometimes i passed out at the kitchen floor, steal stale popcorns, hanged with the anime oriented folks
and then David cobra sometimes got mad at me for waking up ancient threads and then i was like, "im sorry i didnt know how to bookmark" all the time,
normally draw something, post it at Fwiki, then giggle a little and then feel bad about it later, deny it, and then feel good again.
well, anyway, i was like hidding, you know?
thousands of years ago some random stranger asked me to draw something and i was like "sure i love to draw all kind of stuff" but then i let the time pass and pass and whaaat you know? a year or two randomly happened!.
i dont know what happen with the random stranger...
probably died of sadness 'cause i didnt made the comic he wanted me to. :''''''( sob sob sob.
i made some soul search, read self help books, meditated the issue and then come to the root of the problem: i need a tablet, mouse is an evolutionary dead end and its killing my hand (a tablet is a plastic board with a plastic pen in a string that you plug to a computed and then apparently magically becames a piece of paper that is inside the computer!, yeah, thats pretty much the most accuarate description, aparently it has been used since the 70s and all the ink and brush in a big flat white table is rubbish, and stan lee doesnt invented spider man either).
so even if i could ask somewhere, this is like the place i like, because it has robots and women and science, in the right mix and quantity, unlike deviant art, or gurochan, and umm... i cant read moonspeak in futaba-what ever its name, (no, you dont want to check those places).
you could have skipped all that, i would like to ask about personal experiences with drawing hardware, im thinking to buy a tablet called Intuos5 touch Large from Wacom, i have no experience with tablets but i have been told that its almost as easy as using a pencil providing a computer with a good video card and enough RAM, please tell me, think about all the random strangers out there!
nice to talk to you all again.
Battery

[darkbutflashy]

I ocassionally use a tablet for manipping photos (an old Aiptek6000U, but that doesn't matter). Before any shopping advice: Using a tablet *can* be great, but you have to accomodate with it anytime you use it. The basic difference between mouse and tablet is the mouse has relative positing and the tablet has absolute. That means when you use a mouse (with a trackball like I do even more) you can reach any part of the screen with little or no hands movement. With the tablet stylus, you move the hand and the arm, move, move, move to reach any part of the screen. The bigger the tablet is the more. Sure, you can put the tablet into relative mode or use magification, but that's like buying an SUV for riding it on the interstate. With a mouse you may get carpal tunnel syndrome, with the tablet you certainly get a tennis arm. The less you use it the more likely. Switching between tablet and mouse at least to me is an additional nuisance. So I end up manniping in a hours-long session, with left hand on the keyboard to switch tools and right hand on the stylus, and I'm really exhausted (but happy) when I'm done.

That said, I recommend you to buy a *used* tablet of the size you like (doesn't matter which brand, just make sure there are drivers for you OS) and get the tablet experience for little money. Prepare the software you want to use for the tablet (the Aiptek with GIMP on Linux was quite a headache even for a 16-year Linux user like myself) and play around until you have the tennis arm. If you still want a tablet after that, buy a Wacom tablet with a long, thin stylus. They are totally worth it just for the good stylus.

[minkwheel]

Cut your teeth with tablets by getting a referb of an intuos 3 or a BAMBOO tablet from WACOM ...you can find them at MACMALL or PC MALL for small change..... they come with a shortened version of COREL DRAW.... learn the basics with the lower priced intuos tablets, and then go for the INTUOS 5 or CINTIQ.........THAT'S A GREAT TABLET FOR PROS, but it's a chunk of change..... if you don't mind sinking around $60-100 dollars to learn on the smaller tablets.... it's a smaller investment than to blow a full paycheck and a half on a Cintiq only to have it gather dust in the corner........... there are several tutorials for free on YOUTUBE etc.... so you can easily see what you're up against, and make your decision after you see what's what. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN HANDLE...........and for what it's worth.......I THANK you for reading my older story way back when. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR ART!!!! --minkwheel

[AmpFetish]

I have an intuos 5 medium. Amazing device. Long lasting, great programmable buttons on the side....yet, if you're willing to save up and shell out some major cash, go ahead and get yourself a cintiq. Those are the ones that have the screen on them.

The cintiq small will run you around $850. The intuos5 around $200.

[--NightBattery--]

thanks for the feedback.
Cintiq sounds like a long term goal
i just located a wacom pad at a happy* price.
it even seems to be fembots choice.