Wacom Cintiq, try before you buy?

=Holly-Mellor Jan 16, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Hey guys,

For my 21st birthday I'm thinking of upgrading to a Wacom Cintiq, I'm using an Inutos 4 at the moment.

My question to you is, how on earth can I try one before I buy? I live in the UK and we don't have Wacom stores and so far I can't find a shop that has one anywhere in the UK.

Ideas?

You can no longer comment on this thread as it was closed due to no activity for a month.

Devious Comments

~oopeaceoo Feb 12, 2013 Professional

Hey,

I had the fun to work several years with a cintiq via my studies.
(I've studied Animation)
I experienced the small Cintiq, the 21 UX and the 24 HD.

So - at first I thought - the small Cintiq is great, and enough - but
it had less accuracy than the others.

The 21 UX was nice and great - and I thought - "So, this should be it!"

But then I started with the 24 HD - and it is... VERY huge and heavy.

But I reeeaaally liked it a lot!
If you animate - that's a very great tool and I'm a lot faster with it.

Drawing is also very nice with it.

Now I'm working on an Intuos 4 and did some animation Jobs on that as well -
and it worked...

even though I would really like to go for a 24HD some day - the Intous-series are pretty good as well.

If you got the money - I would say - go for a 24 HD, you'll not regret it...

Otherwise - art is possible without a Cintiq as well.

=Holly-Mellor Feb 12, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Heya, thanks for the comment! Yeah I have my intuos and I am happy with I won't lie just that small problem of the hand eye coord thing. I'll have to see if I like it when I go to the convention, it's a big plunge to make!

~Michaelsstuff Feb 12, 2013 Student Digital Artist

In my opinion the cintiq is just cool, people buy it mainly too show off or because they've got too much money. Its not going to help you paint better...though I secretly wish it could...

=Holly-Mellor Feb 12, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Yeah of course it won't increase your skills, but that's not what it aims to do. It aims to make your painting experience more comfortable and drawing onto the screen rather than the tablet really is a whole different interaction.

I wouldn't class myself in either of those brackets, although I wish I did have too much money that wouldn't be half bad

~Michaelsstuff Feb 12, 2013 Student Digital Artist

That makes sense. But I don't thing spending $5'000 (if you're buying the big one) is really all that worth it. But if you've got money to spend, then yup just buy it!

I would too if I had 5k!

=Holly-Mellor Feb 13, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Hell no! Haha, I don't fancy the touch at all. Touch screen isn't my thing ;(

~Blackburnart Jan 26, 2013 Professional Digital Artist

Its not worth it even from a professional stand point, it will do nothing to improve your art. It MIGHT make you more comfortable, and thats a big maybe (everybody I know that has one says they run hot, and they also own a intuos and switch back and forth)

Also the resolution is already out dated compared to high end monitors. Save your money and buy a tool thats actually useful, like a high end IPS monitor, and an intuos. Much better then a cintiq.

=Holly-Mellor Jan 27, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks for the tip

~giorgiobaroni Jan 21, 2013 Professional Digital Artist

in my opinion buying a cintiq isn't necessary at all.
wacom gave me the chance to try and do a little showcase of the 24hd model last year at the children bookfair in bologna italy.
being an intuos user for the last 10 years almost i found myself pretty lost, i worked on it just for a couple of hours so not much, but the feeling i had wasn't the best.
it's a bit slower than the intuos, i am used to pretty fast strokes and on the surface the cursor didn't follow the pen's tip.
it's bulky and heavy, of course, it's a 24 inches screen with a very solid stand (really great in construction and materials) that make the cintiq rotate and slide from vertical to horizontal..another great feature i must say, but nothing that i really care since i'm not used to it.
you can use your free hand to hold it like a sketchboard, on the side, and it has all those fancy buttons on the back side, but again i didn't even used them because the intuos doesn't have them..i usually have my free hand swapping from keyboards shortcuts to the intuos buttons, so with the cintiq i had some troubles since the keyboard was almost impossible to reach due to the size of the screen.
another problem i found was my entire body position: drawing on the intuos is completely automatic for me now, so i have my working stance that never changed in the past years, head and eyes straight to the screen, straight back, arms bent at 90 degrees.
but with the cintiq is completely different: it lays halfway on the table, making the lowest side almost touching my legs, even keeping it close to the horizontal limit, and it forces me to keep my head bent forward, and i'm sure this could lead to some serious back and neck pain being in that position for 10 hours a day..not to mention that what you're looking at is a screen, not bright as a computer screen, but always a screen, so the eyes could suffer too after long hours of use..
that being said, i'm not telling you not to buy it, having the chance to try it would be great of course, but having it would mean starting from scratch with everything, from body position to drawing speed and everything.
if i had the money i wouldn't buy it anyway, i'm fine with my old intuos and i think i'll go with it as long as i can since they are two very different product, they aren't one the evolution of the other, but just two very different pieces of hardware that make the same thing.

=Holly-Mellor Jan 22, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thank you for the in-depth reply! I have been using the Intuos 4 myself for around a year now, so these problems you've faced my also challenge me. In particular the drawing speed. The problem is with the intuos I find it very difficult to be precise with my lines because I'm not watching my stroke, i'm hoping the cintiq can fix that for me!

Details

Statistics

Wacom Cintiq, try before you buy?

Devious Comments

The Journal Portal

Polls

What is your preferred drawing software?

deviantART [dee·vee·un'nt·ART]

Keep in Touch!

Deviousness

Add Media

Style