My offspring has expressed a Festivus/Christmas desire for a Wacom Bamboo tablet with pen. I Googled the things, it seems there are different models and they all include pens? Is there anybody out there that can guide me through these things? Are they all color capable? Their Web site doesn't really get into all that much detail.
From my experience with WACOM (a little older) they are essentially large touchpads and the "Pen" is a pressure sensitive digital stylus.
hard you push, the heavier line or brush stroke.
Colors are changed in your photo-editing software (gimp, photoshop, paint.net)
Edit: I would go for the Capture model
Really only a couple of makers for tablets/pens. Wacom makes decent stuff. The bamboo is the entry level pad. It may not have the same resolution as the step up model. The pad let's you use a mouse (wacom) or pen. I use the mouse mostly...until I fire up photoshop. Pens have different tips that can give softer or harder lines or strokes. Next development will head for pen-capable monitors - just draw on the screen. After that someone may come up with drawing on paper or canvas 
Don't skimp on size for a tablet/pen. Bigger is better.
They are most certainly a specific taste. I would never invest in one for someone who hadn't spent some time using one and liked it. There's many an expensive tablet sitting unused in the desk of an artist who prefers a mouse.
jg
jg, I'm thinking this is a passing fancy, you know how kids are. There's other brands out there such as Digipro but they don't seem to be as well known as Wacom. Anyone have any experience with other brands?
EDIT: Monoprice gets real good reviews and has a much larger drawing area but unlike the Wacom Capture it doesn't include a copy of Photoshop Elements. Anybody used one of those?
oldtin wrote: Next development will head for pen-capable monitors - just draw on the screen.
The Wacom Cintiq already does this.
I just went to an event for industrial designers last night where someone from Wacom did demonstrations, and someone else was doing some amazing stuff with one in 3D modeling software.
The new ones in Adobe CS5 can input pen tilt. So if you have a rectangular or elliptical brush, you can change the path you draw by tilting and rotating the stylus in the same way you would manipulate a pen.
My $.02 is that if you can't draw on paper, one of these won't be of much use. I'm a bit out of practice on making good hand drawings, so spending $400 on an input tablet wouldn't be a wise investment at the moment. However, had I already demonstrated to myself that my drawings were fluid and well practiced, I could actually see a number of uses for this device, particularly for exporting vector art for CNC use.
By the way, the Wacom guy loved Sketchbook Pro, and there is also a free version.
I see the Bamboo is carried by Stapes, Office Depot, Best Buy and the like. You might be able to get some paws on time with them to see what you and your offspring think of them.
Some years ago we also bought a pen and pad thingie, thinking it would be all wonderfullness. Here we are some few years later, and I've no idea where it is, and I can't even remember who made it. None of us used it after a few minutes or hours.
Sorta like that HP touch screen. It seems usefull, until you spend some time with it.
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