Bamboo (Small) Pen Tablet with Pen Only

Bamboo was easy to install on my Mac. I only used it to draw in PhotoStudio and Draw of Openoffice. Works allright. Was able to draw a logo quickly. It has no applications delivered with it, that's why the price is affordable.

I was looking for something specifically for digital art and was wary about picking this up seeing how its tailored for office use. However I am very satisfied with this tablet and its ease of use in artistic applications. Its a bit on the small side, but its also a lot cheaper than its bigger counterparts.

I love it! Works great for electronic drawing, painting, and signing your name. Its size is nice, compact and does not take up much space on my desk. I delayed buying for a while, and then took the plunge. I'm glad I did.

I've had the Bamboo for about 2 months now. I bought it for my home computer, but about a month and a half ago my I got a spiffy new computer at work with a really cheap old mouse. I was doing heavy graphics intensive work, mostly InDesign and Photoshop with a little Dreamweaver thrown in too. And my the damned ball in my mouse kept sticking.

So I brought in my new Bamboo figuring I could solve all my problems at once.

For the first month or so everything worked fine. I hadn't used the tablet too much at home, but I really got the feel of it using it for 12-14 hours a day seven days a week. And I pretty much fell in love with my tablet.

Then it stopped working.

I would boot up my Mac and it wouldn't recognize the tablet. It still worked, sort of, but instead of the tablet working as an entire screen, it worked as a mouse. A very bad mouse. So bad that I considered going back to my original 4 year old mouse with a little rubber ball in it.

I tried fixing it under preferences and it gave the wonderful message "No tablet detected. Try reinstalling the software." So I reinstalled the software (numerous times). Tried finding a more recent driver. And still nothing.

In the end I resorted to bringing in an old Apple Mighty-optical mouse that I had lying around and finishing my project with that. I was uber-disappointed with my Bamboo and probably would have given the damned product only one star, except when I brought it home (just now) it seems to be working on my home computer just fine. If it keeps working, then this is definitely a 4 or 5 star product, but for now I'm afraid I can only give it 2, and hope that out there somewhere a programmer is desperately working on some sort of fix.

I have gone through tons of drawing tablets over the last few years, and they have ALL led to disappointment. I had always thought about getting a Wacom tablet because of its rave reviews, but I shyed away from it due to the higher price tag. Well - the addage is true: "You get what you pay for."

The Wacom Bamboo (small) is just a few bucks more than your generic drawing tablets, but it is EXCELLENT! It is very responsive, comfortable to use, and easy to install. I use it extensively with my graphics and animation applications, and it makes everything easier.

Don't be discouraged by the small size of the tablet. It basically makes the tablet space a compressed version of your screen, so the entire screen is virtually accessible from the tablet. I have a 22" widescreen LCD, and it works perfectly with the small size.

You won't be disappointed. I'm definitely sticking with Wacom from now on.