The new Wacom Intuos 5 has just hit the shelves and...it's Christmas time, so there may be deals on it soon. I'm a digital art student (Game Art & Design) and I've been using a large Intuos 4 that I can check out from my school, but not always reliably.

As digital artists, is there a tablet you're particularly partial to? I had a teacher suggest I look into the Wacom Bamboo tablets which have an easier price range, but I can't quite tell how they stack up to the Intuos. My dream is to get a cintique...but that's going to have to wait for a bit.

Wow, Game Art and Design sounds really cool. I'd really like to go into game design as well, though probably more the programming side... well, actually, I'd probably prefer the art side, but my degree focused on programming so more of a chance to get hired for that!

I'm a fan of Wacom tablets as well, not that I've ever really used any others. I used to have a Wacom Graphire, which wasn't bad, I think that's pretty much what the Bamboo line has replaced. Then I got a Intuos 4 which was a BIG improvement. My old Graphire had really poor sensitivity, I remember being amazed when I got the Intuos and found that I could use it without grinding the pen into the surface. Mine's a small though, I actually much prefer small tablets to large ones.

I have two bamboo funs and one intuos 4 [small] and they work great. They are small. The older versions of bamboo were a lot better than the new bamboo series (create, capture, etc.).

I'd personally recommend the Intuos over the bamboo however, as I find the newer bamboos lacking and a small intuos trumps bamboo at the same price. ~$200 for a small intuos tablet with more sensitivity versus a ~200 bamboo tablet with only half the specs? No way.

I use the intuos for the major bulk of my work and bamboo as a backup.

Sounds like the intuos is more popular than the bamboo models. Some of my classmates think they should get the intuos 5 right away because "obviously" the intuos 4 is out of date, but I'm not convinced. Also, I've never worked on a small tablet before, how is it different?

I still use an Intuos 3, which I love. I'm not even close to unlocking its full potential yet because people who are much better than me still use it, so unless it breaks I won't get a new one. But I wouldn't say no if someone gave me a brand new intuos 5. Or a cintiq HINT HINT

I prefer larger tablets, but smaller ones cost less of course, and some people find them more comfortable.

I personally use the Bamboo Pen & Touch and I love it! Before getting my current though, I had been stuck with the Graphire, which I didn't find too bad, but then agian, I had no previous experience to compare it too. Personally I quite like my bamboo, since I find it's easy to use and haven't had a problem with it (besides breaking the pen once, but that was my fault). I've never tried any of the Inutos or Cintiq line, though they both look AMAZING. Of course, digital art is only a hobby for me, not something I do every day, so I'm happy to settle for the bamboo line.

As for size, I've only ever used the smaller ones so idk. Haha I just find i'm zooming in a lot with it...

I have a small Bamboo Pen, had one of the old Bamboos before, I think it's alright if you just need a tablet to tide you over til you can save together for a nicer one or to see if you can get used to tablets in general. The Bamboo pen unfortunately suffers a bit in useability, in my opinion anyway, because it dont have any customizable buttons which my old bamboo tablet had :/ Can quickly get aggrevating when each time you want to change a mistake you have to get the keyboard to undo things. Also the Bamboo Pen' pen don't have that "eraser" tip on the end, so you have to manually change to the eraser tool with the mouse when you need it., also get annoying very quickly.

Eeek, no programmable buttons is a really big negative for the Bamboos. I'm constantly using left, right and middle mouse clicks while working in Maya and not having those on my tablet would seriously slow my workflow. Since this is something that I want to do for a career, it sounds like I should probably keep checking one out from the school when I need one and saving up for at least an intuos 4... secretly drools all over the cintiq line... Sigh. Certainly not helping that my school's tuition per semestre just went up >_<

helps Mimosa droll on the pretty Cintiqs Glad we could help :)