XtremeCamera

You might have read the Julia Barnes review of Wacom’s Bamboo tablet, and you might have thought the review contained everything you needed to know about whether or not a tablet would be beneficial to your own work. I think the review was solid, with plenty of information and a positive attitude about tablets in general, and I agree with everything she wrote. That said, there are several models of tablets by Wacom, and the Bamboo product line, while being a terrific tablet, is not on the same level as the intuos4 product line. My review centers on the intuos4, a tablet I’ve used for the past few weeks, but prior to that I used the intuos3 for the past few years.

The Bamboo Pen & Touch, which Julia reviewed, would make a great first tablet or simply a great tablet if your budget was small or your needs were more generalized than that of a professional photographer doing his or her own postproduction work on a computer workstation. With much higher sensitivity, more precise controls, and several more features the intuos4 outshines anything else on the market right now. So, let’s have a look.

Intuos4 – An Overview

The intuos line has been completely redesigned with the intuos4. Wacom says that the new design and new features were inspired by creative types and after using it for the past few weeks I have to agree that whoever is behind the new design had plenty of experience with using pen and tablets.

For the past 3 years I’ve used a large intuos3 nearly every day and I loved it. But, as you can see by the side-by-side photos the intuos4 is a much leaner, lighter, and ergonomically sound then its predecessor. And before I forget, the intuos4, with the detachable USB2 cable and perfect placement of the buttons and wheel, is perfect for both left and right-handed users.

I have depended on the tablet for pinpoint accuracy with Photoshop tools and if I were to give up my trusty intuos3 it would have to be for a tablet that surpassed the performance I was used to, and provide a level of comfort even after several hours of heavy use. The intuos4 proved to be a worthy successor in every way.

Shape & Surface

Even though I considered myself somewhat of an expert in tablet use with digital photography post production I was surprised by a new feature of the intuos4, a textured surface. In the past all the tablets I’d used had slick surfaces that allowed, I thought, a smooth glide for precise pen strokes. With the intuos4 comes a totally new surface, one that allows even more precision. You’ll find yourself feeling more confident about the strokes you make, without fear of accidentally running off the surface. Seriously.

As your computer displays have gone widescreen so has the intuos4. This new widescreen shape is also found in the active surface area of the tablet, making everything you do feel like a normal extension of the display. The proportion feels correct, and your hand-to-eye coordination is just about perfect.

The new intuos4 pen as undergone a major overhaul as well. The new Wacom Tip Sensor technology allows you to use something digital photographers have been begging for in their post production work; nuance.

Ask any digital photographer about their postproduction and ultimately you’ll find that the biggest “need” is the ability to apply the ‘exact amount of x, y, or z’ to a specific spot or area of a photo, in other words, nuance.

Being able to influence the tiniest spot of a photo with just the right amount of dodge or burn effect has been the Holy Grail for photography post work. If you use a mouse in your post work you cannot begin to even phantom nuance in dodging or burning and if you use a tablet you’ve undoubtedly complained about the heavy handed application of certain tools when a surgeons touch is needed instead. With the intuos4 you’re now a surgeon.

Hardware and Software

With the introduction of the intuos3 Wacom introduced some wonderfully designed buttons and terrific software that allowed you to assign certain functions to these buttons. It even featured something called the Touch Strip, a tool that allowed you to zoom, scroll, or even perform a custom keystroke all without having to move to the keyboard.

With the intuos4 you now have a new Scroll Ring, Radial Menu, and a stroke-of-genius addition that allows you to assign names to each button, which then lights up so that you’ll never again forget what custom function you’ve assigned to each button, in each application!

One of the most important new features in the intous4 line is what Wacom calls “Precision Mode”. When you activate precision mode it makes the pen much more sensitive which in turn makes it easy to make minute changes to tiny parts of your photograph. It is truly a remarkable new technology and only available in the intuos4 line.

In digital photography using a tablet is usually reserved to Adobe Photoshop and the plugins you’ve installed. These days you might have extended the tablet’s use to Adobe Lightroom or (gasp!) Apple Aperture. If you have used more than one application then you’ll know instantly when I mention that assigning custom keystrokes or functions to the buttons on the intuos3 or intuos4 is all well and good, until you change applications. Changing the application changes the functions and I’ve known some people in other fields actually place tape on the buttons that say what each function is for each application they use. Needless to say that is far from a graceful way of taking advantage of this heavy-duty feature.

With the intuos4 it no longer matters how many applications you use or how many custom keystrokes you assign. The illuminated display shows you what the functions are and when you launch a new application, say changing from Photoshop to Lightroom, the button illumination changes as well. By far, this is the coolest feature to hit the tablet scene in years and it is finally the one thing that will have ‘most’ users actually use the buttons instead of simply ignoring them.

Wacom has designed several replaceable “nibs” for the pen and they are stored in the pen’s base. Each nib is designed for different jobs or personal preferences and it will be something you will want to work with in order to find the best nibs for each job. For instance, you may want to use a fine nib for dodging and burning or a thicker nib for wide brush strokes. It takes a second or so to change out the nib for the job at hand and when it comes to professional results you’re going to want to use the right nib for the job.

In addition to the intuos4 software you also get the latest plugin from NIK software called Color v3 (a lite version), as well as Photoshop Elements. If you’re new to photographic postproduction you might not own either of these, or their more fully realized versions (Photoshop proper instead of Elements, and the complete version of Color 3 by NIK.

It All Adds Up To…

The intuos4 tablets are simply the best tablets to ever roll off the Wacom assembly line. The intuos4 line is definitely a tool for professionals. The only choice you’ll need to make is the size. From small to extra large, the choice is yours.

For this review I used the Medium sized tablet, which worked out extremely well. The medium tablet is the most convenient, most natural, and most balanced of the tablets and most people will find the medium intuos4 to be a perfect fit. However, nothing beats the large and even extra large intuos if you use them every day. My intuos3 is the extra large and I probably won’t give it up completely until my wallet allows me to buy into the extra large intuos4. I’ll certainly continue using the intuos4 and because I find myself doing more and more postproduction in the field, on my laptop, the medium tablet works very well away from my workstation.

The intuos4 comes with the new pen, a great mouse, a heavy pen stand, and a detachable USB2 cable. I know that with my extra large intuos3 I use the mouse that came with it all the time, the surface is large enough to justify it. Perhaps in time I’ll use the intous4 mouse as much but for this review I merely tried it out. I found it to be very accurate, balanced, and a great fit in my hands. The active surface area of the medium tablet however makes using the mouse

Bottom Line

Coming straight from daily use of the extra large intuos3 I can attest to the new, slimmer, lighter, and accurate intuos4 being a superior tablet in every way. The technologies are major leaps, both in hardware and software.

With the illuminated display that shows you what each button has been programmed to do, with the multiple nibs and the great pen, and with the natural “pencil on paper” feel of the new surface, the intuos4 line is the closest to perfect as you can get.

If you are a digital photographer, amateur or professional, if you own and use an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop, and if you perform your own post production work then a Wacom tablet doesn’t just make sense, it is an imperative investment into your work. Without a Wacom tablet your post work will never achieve the level of accuracy it deserves.

It’s very much worth your while to pop over to Wacom’s website for a whole lot of information about all the models they offer.

Steven McBride