Drawing Tablets - Like Wacom

[sgkean]

Anybody have experience with various drawing tablets, like the Wacom tablets? Starting to look at x-mas type gifts, and this would be perfect for one of the kids.

Wacom's are pretty expensive for the good ones, I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives though...

I know there are some by Adesso and Genius, just no clue as to which are the better ones and which ones to stay away from

[Kaos Kid]

My daughter has the Wacom Bamboo Capture, affordable and once she got the hang of drawing while she was looking at the monitor it got a little easier. I still want to move her up to a tablet that she can draw on the surface directly and see what she is drawing on the tablet screen itself (like pen and paper) but until I can afford $400 this one fits the bill nicely.

[sgkean]

That's something I know he'd prefer to have, but way too costly. I have been looking at getting an Android tablet to use (like Galaxy 7), just not sure how well those would work with some of the drawing apps, if they are powerful enough, etc.

[Kaos Kid]

Well, hers is the CTH470, those are now under $100. It plugs in to the USB2.0 port on her old Dell 755 USFF that is only running a 2.66Ghz C2D (actually a Xeon) and crappy onboard graphics Q35 Express Chipset (ICH9DO) and only 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM and it has no problems, she is using Autodesk Sketchbook but Photoshop works with this as well. Running WinXP but there are drivers for Win7 on the Wacom site. Not a very large investment and she has used it regularly for at least a year and a half so it was worth it. She now does fan fiction and draws for a graphics fan site for an animated show she is in to (Gravity Falls) and gets positive reviews for her art. Best birthday present she ever got.

[bubba]

My tablet is an Intous3 6x8 and I love it. Last year I got my son a Wacom Bamboo Splash, think it was $80 at the time. Also picked up a copy of Sketchbook Pro for $60. Its fair bit easier to draw in than Photoshop, and crap ton cheaper too.

They don't make the Splash anymore, might find some online somewhere. The new version of it is the Intuos Pen https://store.wacom.com/us/en/product/CTL480?