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Worth getting a Wacom tablet for local adjustments?

VirtualRain
Hi, I'm wondering who's using a Wacom tablet for local adjustments?

What size tablet is best (small or medium)? (I have a 27" 4K display)

Do I need to spend the extra on an Intuos Pro or is the cheaper Pen & Touch just as good for photography?

Can you use the buttons or touch wheel on the tablet to control brush size, hardness, and opacity?

How is the performance/lag?

What else should I know?
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Comments

17 comments

Date Votes
  • Boris Sheikman
    Hi VirtualRain,

    I have been thinking about getting a tablet one day too. Watching David Grover's webinars and hearing him praise his tablet inspired me. I have an Apple Magic Trackpad right now. Do you have one by chance? I was thinking of getting a stylus for it with the idea that it could achieve maybe 70-80% of the functionality for significantly less cost. Have you thought about this possibility? Just curious if you did and what your thoughts would be. 😊
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  • PhaseoneUser55657
    I highly recommend the tablet, even if you get one of the lower end ones. I have the medium size one, and have it locked down to my primary monitor. CO8 only uses pen pressure to control the brush size, and I don't find that it works very well, they don't support the "Eraser" side of the pen, it show the "-" but still draws the mask, (Stupid).

    Even with all the problems, I would not go back to a mouse or touch pad, just so easy to draw masks.

    So, just get a cheap one to start, and you will find you might want a better one later down the road.

    Robert
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  • Rupert Pessl
    I also lovelovelove my Wacom Intuos Pro. I use a 21" iMac as my main editing machine and the S size is perfect for me. Tried the M and thought it was too big. I don't actually need that much space, since I usually work at a quite large zoom level.

    The one thing that a table does so well is that it's a much more natural way of painting in the adjustments than using a mouse could ever do.
    I recommend to go for it - you won't look back.

    One more thing though....the buttons on the intuos are ok, the dial is worthless... I have not found it to be useful with any applications I use for photo editing (C1, Photoshop). It's just much faster to have my right hand on the pen and my left on the keyboard for shortcuts. easy and fast.
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  • VirtualRain
    [quote="rupertpessl" wrote:
    I also lovelovelove my Wacom Intuos Pro. I use a 21" iMac as my main editing machine and the S size is perfect for me. Tried the M and thought it was too big. I don't actually need that much space, since I usually work at a quite large zoom level.

    The one thing that a table does so well is that it's a much more natural way of painting in the adjustments than using a mouse could ever do.
    I recommend to go for it - you won't look back.

    One more thing though....the buttons on the intuos are ok, the dial is worthless... I have not found it to be useful with any applications I use for photo editing (C1, Photoshop). It's just much faster to have my right hand on the pen and my left on the keyboard for shortcuts. easy and fast.


    Interesting thanks. I'm surprised to hear you say the dial is worthless... I would think it would be invaluable for changing brush characteristics like size, hardness, and opacity... No?
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  • Grant Hodgeon
    [quote="VirtualRain" wrote:
    [quote="rupertpessl" wrote:
    I also lovelovelove my Wacom Intuos Pro. I use a 21" iMac as my main editing machine and the S size is perfect for me. Tried the M and thought it was too big. I don't actually need that much space, since I usually work at a quite large zoom level.

    The one thing that a table does so well is that it's a much more natural way of painting in the adjustments than using a mouse could ever do.
    I recommend to go for it - you won't look back.

    One more thing though....the buttons on the intuos are ok, the dial is worthless... I have not found it to be useful with any applications I use for photo editing (C1, Photoshop). It's just much faster to have my right hand on the pen and my left on the keyboard for shortcuts. easy and fast.


    Interesting thanks. I'm surprised to hear you say the dial is worthless... I would think it would be invaluable for changing brush characteristics like size, hardness, and opacity... No?


    You'd think 😉

    It doesn't, though. There's no 'integration' with Capture One. You'll get pressure-sensitivity though! Yay!
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  • meanwhile
    Just saw this app - http://www.astopad.com

    Turns an iPad into a graphics tablet. Played with it for an hour or so, not with a stylus, just finger, and it's amazing. No lag, great precision, works well with masks in Capture One. Can't really fault it.
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  • meanwhile
    I'm not saying this is equal to, or as good as a Wacom, Huion or other proper graphics tablet, just throwing it out there. 😄
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  • Boris Sheikman
    Hi meanwhile,

    I went to astropad.com and downloaded their software for my iMac and my iPad. Wow, it is very, very impressive! I liked it! 😊 I don't have a stylus so I only used my finger. The apps are very responsive to my input. Good find!
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  • Ario
    I use the Wacom Intuos for everything, I do not use the mouse anymore. I use now the small size which I prefer over the medium size I used in the past.
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  • mli20
    [quote="photoGrant" wrote:
    [quote="VirtualRain" wrote:
    ...

    Interesting thanks. I'm surprised to hear you say the dial is worthless... I would think it would be invaluable for changing brush characteristics like size, hardness, and opacity... No?


    You'd think 😉

    It doesn't, though. There's no 'integration' with Capture One. You'll get pressure-sensitivity though! Yay!


    This is not correct. You can program the Wacom dial - "The Touch Ring" in Wacom parlance - to control brush size, hardness and opacity. It is a bit long-winded, but it is possible.

    It's a two-step procedure:

    1) Edit the keyboard shortcuts in COP to ensure that keystrokes can be used to control the desired brush parameters.
    2) Use the Wacom Tablet Properties Control Panel to assign same keystrokes to the Touch Ring, after having selected COP for "Application".

    Cheers,
    Mogens
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  • VirtualRain
    [quote="mli20" wrote:
    [quote="photoGrant" wrote:
    [quote="VirtualRain" wrote:
    ...

    Interesting thanks. I'm surprised to hear you say the dial is worthless... I would think it would be invaluable for changing brush characteristics like size, hardness, and opacity... No?


    You'd think 😉

    It doesn't, though. There's no 'integration' with Capture One. You'll get pressure-sensitivity though! Yay!


    This is not correct. You can program the Wacom dial - "The Touch Ring" in Wacom parlance - to control brush size, hardness and opacity. It is a bit long-winded, but it is possible.

    It's a two-step procedure:

    1) Edit the keyboard shortcuts in COP to ensure that keystrokes can be used to control the desired brush parameters.
    2) Use the Wacom Tablet Properties Control Panel to assign same keystrokes to the Touch Ring, after having selected COP for "Application".

    Cheers,
    Mogens


    I ended up buying an Intuos Pro small and did exactly this setup to control brush size and hardness. It works just great. Small is perfect. These things are so sensitive that a medium or large just means you need to lift your hand or arm respectively to reach things... With the small so much is within pen reach without moving my hand it's amazingly fast to navigate yet incredibly precise. I have the small covering two 4K displays and its plenty sensitive enough.

    I've also used the shortcut buttons on the tablet to change the pointer to one of brush (b), eraser (e), pointer (v), hand (h), and toggle the mask (m).

    It's been a bit of a challenge getting use to... I've had lots of errant brush strokes and mis-clicks... Hopefully that will improve with more practise and use.
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  • VirtualRain
    im finding the lag increases if I use the wireless and that it's pretty lag free if I plug it into the USB port... Is that what others have found, or is this unique to me?

    Also, not related to Wacom, but my erase brush size indicator is much larger than the actual brush... Very annoying. Do others also have this issue?
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  • VirtualRain
    [quote="FirstName" wrote:
    im finding the lag increases if I use the wireless and that it's pretty lag free if I plug it into the USB port... Is that what others have found, or is this unique to me?

    Also, not related to Wacom, but my erase brush size indicator is much larger than the actual brush... Very annoying. Do others also have this issue?


    I've answered my own question about the brush size indicator being larger than the actual brush stroke... that happens if you are using pen pressure (and not pressing hard enough)... Doh! 😊
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  • Rupert Pessl
    In photoshop I find this shortcut to change hardness or size of the brush to be the fastest way:

    While holding down control and alt you can move the "mouse"

    * up/down to change hardness
    * left/right to change the brush size

    Works flawless and is - imho - much faster than the dial on the wacom. Also it's faster since I can change hardness AND brush size at once.

    Now, if only C1 would offer this functionality *wink*
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  • Martin Knowles
    I use a 12" Wacom Intuos3 (yep, classic...but it keeps on going ) on 2 27" monitors. For me to be willing to part with it, you'd either 1) have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands, or 2) have to replace it with another better Wacom.

    The only gotchas as far as using it in C1 are: 1. some of the drop-down menus on the toolbar get a little touchy because it's difficult to keep the pointer exactly on one spot (I always get about a 1px drift if I'm putting pressure on the pen, but that may be due to resolution or excess caffeine). 2. the eraser functionality gets broken frequently in C1 releases, so you still have to use the b/e keys to switch tools. 7.x finally got it right, but 8 breaks it again--you get the eraser cursor but it doesn't erase the mask. Hopefully this gets fixed in 8.2, but I'm not holding my breath. Everything else works great, though.
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  • BeO
    Top Commenter
    Hi.
    Is there a tutorial video which shows how one could work with a Wacom tablet in Capture One? I searched but couldn't find one. I understand that Wacom set-up can be different, but any flavor of how somebody uses it would be helpful.

    the eraser functionality gets broken frequently in C1 releases, so you still have to use the b/e keys to switch tools. 7.x finally got it right, but 8 breaks it again--you get the eraser cursor but it doesn't erase the mask. Hopefully this gets fixed in 8.2, but I'm not holding my breath. Everything else works great, though.


    New bugs in new functionality are not nice, but happen in every software. New bugs in existing functionality are much more annoying. Has it been (re-)fixed in 8.2?

    Are the b/e keys still work at least?

    Thanks for your reply
    BeO
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  • NNN637175238864138382
    The larger size is good to have, but the feeling is much better. If you don't mind a brand other than Wacom, I've been using a XP-Pen Star 06 ( https://www.xp-pen.com/product/49.html ) for a few months and have loved it. I have a 27" monitor and it works great with it.

    It’s a little less expensive than the entry level Wacom tablets but has more features, and works well with capture one. The only thing I’ve noticed is when it’s connecting wirelessly there’s a bit of a lag but when it’s wired it’s great.
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