Hi, I''m looking to buy a graphics tablet, just wondering what I should look out for / avoid? Is the working area very important? I was hoping to spend as little as possible , perhaps with £100 as an upper limit (thats about 150 dollars). I really dont know what to look for! Cheers

Are you talking about a pen-based input tablet?

Check out Wacom for products and pricing.

They support pressure sensitivity for more artistic freedom, too.

You dont really know what to look for but it''s OK because there is really only one brand of graphic tablets anyway...
WACOM.

The real thing is what you are gonna do with it and what size you want to work with.
If a £100 is your limit, I assume you''ll want a A6 size, it''s small enough if you are used Fine Arts techniques where they teach you to paint on a whole A3 page, but if you are more of a miniaturist, it''s quite enough to do a good job.
Personally I work on an A5 (I payed it around 300 EUR) size, and I feel it''s quite large for me, but it doubles as a nice mousepad

About the latest models, I wouldnt know the difference between Intuos and Graphire, but the website is pretty good, so it should give you a good idea on what to choose.

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

i dont really know what 100 of ur British dollars are worth.. but like that other guy said, u basically only have a choice between 2 tablets.. the graphire and the intous.. sense u have no knowledge of tablets, i would assume that a professional quality tablet like intous will not do u any good.. save ur money and get a graphire..

i cant really help u answer the size question, as i have been wondering about that myself.. never really seen an intous in person.. Apparently they dont think there are any graphic artists in canada

do a search for coolicam.
i got one of their tablets for $60, 4 x 6, USB, cordless pen and mouse, 512 levels of pressure sensitivity. It''s very nice for a beginner tablet and it comes with a stripped down version of painter.

sorry, that was me.
here''s a quick search result, tells where to buy:

http://www.coolicam.com/wtbcic275.html

I have an aiptek hyperpen 8,000 and it sux.

wacom makes the best tablets!! anyone who tells u to buy anuthing else, should not be taken seriously ...

[edited by - mentalstatement on March 1, 2003 8:26:47 PM]

the cheap Graphires are very nice, i like them

I got myself an Intuos 2 A5... its perfect for the job, and has improved my artwork no-end