I'm looking to get a Wacom Tablet, specifically either the Wacom Intuos4 Small or the Wacom Bamboo Capture. The Intuos4 is twice the cost of the Capture with a smaller active area. I'm not looking to spend anymore than needed - but I don't want to have to buy something again in a year or so.

I am not an artist. There will be no free hand sketches, drawings etc being done. I am simply looking to use the tablet for photo editing in Lightroom3, PS and Elements. That's it. The pen being more precise than the mouse.

The Intuos4 medium is a bit more than I want to spend so the question is - is the small large enough to do just photo editing. And will the Capture perform well enough for the same editing.

Thanks,

Ron
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I have a pen and touch tablet that I use from Wacom and I love it for editing in Lightroom. I dont have a problem with the size of it, becuase what I am looking at is the monitor. Have fun, you will really enjoy the extra control you get from using and tablet.
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I picked up an Intuos 8 or 9 years ago for painting and have no need of anything else. That said I'd be willing to bet the new models, even the cheaper ones would do you well for what you're talking about using it for.
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I have a Bamboo, and had a Graphire3 before it. I always wanted the extra precision of the Intuos, but when it boils right down, I don't need it for what I do (photo editing & retouching). Doesn't sound like you do either :-) :-)

ALSO, I have found that the SMALLEST tablet size available will probably be plenty for photo editing. I had the medium sized Graphire3 and I ended up changing the software so that only about 30%, just over a quarter of the tablet was active. It was faster and worked just as well.

Downsides - small tablet with lower sensitive (graphire,bamboo) means it won't be a good mouse replacement. I use mine for one thing and one thing ONLY (drawing lines & masks).... anything else is not very comfortable to me, not as precise as the mouse. It may well be the same problem with the Intuos however... there is a certain natural 'jitter' in our hands when we're not anchored and writing.

Finally, A note about the Bamboo. Honestly, I am not nearly as happy with the Bamboo as I was with the Graphire3. The graphire3 was like a low res Intuos clone. Smooth tablet surface, & the Pen, etc were still durable and decent quality. On the Bamboo, the surface of the tablet has a slight texture to it. They did this to make it seem like paper so home sketchers could feel more comfortable. PROBLEM IS, IT WEARS DOWN THE PEN TIP FAST if you're doing repeated masking in photoshop where you're moving back and forth A LOT like you were shading something in with a pencil. Now I only use mine on tricky photos that i need extra precision on, and I haven't killed my pen yet... but if I used it every week, I'd only expect 6 months from the pen, ASSUMING you're using it like I do with many many many fast strokes when masking an edge.

A few more notes about my use of it: Usually I'm brushing in detailed masks, VS drawing the lines of the selection tool. I can't drawn a very precise line, and if I was going to slowly draw a line I could just use a mouse. I use the pen because when I'm moving quickly and brushing, I tend not to miss and go over the edges. It allows for a faster and more precise mask. That is really the only use that I use my Bamboo for. I don't have the Bamboo 'touch' because I hate the touchpad on my laptop and I have no intention of extending that misery to my desktop :-)

Hope that rambling helps you :-)
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