So recently I’ve been suffering with RSI (repetitive strain injury which is actually a name given to a number of different injuries). Mainly this has been down to poor posture, over using the computer and a lust for buying some new hardware for my pc. I’ve been told by Bill, that a tablet is more natural to use, and thus helps RSI down to the movement being more natural – So I gave it ago, I ordered from dabs.com, my Wacom Bamboo (the black one, the medium one of that model range).
Initally I had been a little reluctant to give it a go, simply as I had tried an old one before and didn’t really get to grips with it, however I thought if I gave it a chance I would be more successful this time round, plus my hands were starting to get to me! So, 2 days passed and it arrived.
I was like a kid at christmas ofcourse, however the mad dash to get the packaging was brought to a sudden end whilst I marvelled at it’s packaging. It was pretty nice! Smart Black exterior – a lot of time and care had gone into creating this product.
So any way, I hooked the thing up striaght away, to the Samsung R710 (Vista), it started to work straight away, which is nice, but I decided to install the drivers anyway for some extra functionality, which I’m glad I did, and I must say, Vista seems like it was made for tablet usage. The installation was simple, and even came with a nice American man who took me through how to use it, however I did get bored of the tiresome, and obvious tutorials.
The Tablet & Pen
The tablet itself is jet black, with a slightly polished exterior around the edge of the mat. When plugged in via USB, the buttons lightup blue, these are the handy function keys (you’ll use these a lot and they are customisable) – the whole thing stinks of quality and thought. The pen itself is OK, its not good nor bad, I guess I would just be happier if it was slightly heavier. Oh and last not least, you got the pen holder, which holds the pen on its side, or directly in so it stands on end – this is perfectly wieghted and adequete for the purpose.
Bamboo Specifications
I really should include these too:
Size : A6 and 16:10 Aspect Ratio (handy for widescreen)
High Resolution, although not sure the figures, they don’t say
Sensitivity: 512 levels (not bad for the price)
Buttons: easy scroll thing (like an ipod wheel), and 4 function buttons
Gestures: supports gestures
Ergonomic Design
Using the Wacom Bamboo
Well there are many uses, I’m using it as a mouse replacement, however there are issues (will discuss below), and you can happily use it in photoshop – it makes you far more productive and you wont regret it!
Vista is a dream, I live how it even dettects it and changes your cursor to a more round one, its very cool and suits it, and increases precision. But take advantage of the excellent handwritting tool, I have absolutely awful handwritting, but it even got my writting 99% of the time, although swear words are often misinterprerted ( I think deliberatley ), can you guess what ‘snit’ should be?
Drawing, I’m not a hugely good drawer, ok terrible, but you will certinly have fun with it, it’s pretty damn responsive.
The disadvantages of using the Bamboo Tablet, the bad stuff!
Ok lets start with, if you haven’t used a tablet before, it takes some getting used to, and feels pretty awkward to start, within about 2 hours of playing, you’ll be using it like a Pro, but the important part is to stick at it, practice makes perfect, not really a negative point, but certainly worth a mention.
Next is, if you use multiple monitors lile me, it gets annoying, you can’t use it over 2 screens very easily as they aren’t designed to do so. Which means you need to lock it to one monitor, which yes, its not the end of the world, especially if A) it was easy to switch them, B) you could do it with a button.
I’m afraid both of which are not true. Took me ages to see how to lock it to one screen with mapping it to monitor 1 or 2. It turns out it was in control panel, tablet properties, then the ‘details’ button – I just wouldn’t expect that, it certainly isn’t obvious.
Next, you can’t assign it to a function button, meaning you can only work on 1 screen at a time, or have to go through and switch it over… it’s not the end of the world but i’d rather have 1 button to switch it!
