We get hands on with the Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch entry-level graphics tablet (aka the Bamboo Capture) to see if it offers value for money for digital artists.
Although the Bamboo Pen and Touch may lack features when compared to more advanced tablets, those features come at a hefty price. At just £75 the Bamboo Pen and Touch is £125 less than an Intuos and £100 cheaper than the Medium Fun model. This means it’s the perfect graphics tablet for beginners and keen amateurs on a budget.
For
Supports multi-touch gestures
Reversible design for left and right handers
Budget price
Ideal for beginners
Against
No customisable gestures
No customisable shortcuts
Lacks features of advanced tablets
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The Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch, known as the Wacom Bamboo Capture in the US
With more apps integrating multi-touch gestures into their user interface, the humble graphics tablet is taking on a new lease of life as a multi-touch input device. The Wacom range of graphics tablets now comes with complete support for multi-touch gesturing across its entire range, including its entry-level Bamboo products.
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The Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch comes in two styles: the silver Fun range or the matt black Pen and Touch reviewed here (known as the Bamboo Capture in the US).
Weighing in at 418g and 11mm thick, the Bamboo Pen and Touch has the same matt black look and feel as the Intuos, but is offset with some luminescent yellow trim to separate it from its more serious, larger sibling.
Bigger work area
It has the same enlarged work area as the Intuos, with an active pen area of 147 x 92mm and an active touch area of 125 x 85mm. The surface sheet is marked out with white LEDs and surrounded by a non-active border: this makes it much easier to work right to the edge of your canvas.
However, because of the size of the tablet, if you make any sweeping motions in your artwork it can struggle and you end up drawing on the blank area without realising.
Not all software supports the Touch functions, but Anime Studio 8.5 is one that does
Stylus pen
The Bamboo Pen and Touch’s stylus pen is a reduced model compared to the Intuos/Cintiq, with a mere 1,024 levels of pressure, but that’s still pretty darn impressive when placed next to other tablets on the market.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel as ergonomically pleasing in the hands as the Intuos/Cintiq’s pen. It lacks a rounded tip and has a slightly stiff action that we couldn’t resolve even with extensive tweaking of the settings.
It does, however, include the same pressure sensitive eraser tip on the end as the Intuos’s, making it perfect for quickly correcting mistakes when drawing.
Gestures
The Pen and Touch supports the standard gestures for rotating, zooming and navigating back and forth through web pages. Gestures can be managed and activated via the Bamboo preferences panel, but there’s no option to create customisable gestures as there is on the Intuos.
As such, you’re limited to your system-wide ones, unless the app you’re using has multi-touch functionality built in.
As well as utilising gestures, the Bamboo has four programmable express keys with a textured plastic surface that gives it the analogue feel that we felt the Intuos lacked.
However, because it doesn’t have the heads-up display or function wheel of the Intuos, anything more advanced than simple shortcuts will still have to be done through either menus or keystrokes. When choosing shortcuts for the Express.
Keys – with gestures, say – you can also only select system-wide shortcuts and keystrokes along with Wacom’s default options, such as activating the Bamboo preferences.
Bamboo Pen and Touch dock
Instead of the heads-up display, there’s the Bamboo dock. This can be used as a launchpad for apps and comes loaded with four fun apps and a link to the Wacom Collection of similar drawing and sketching apps that work in conjunction with the tablet.
The Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch can also be used with the same £35 wireless kit as the rest of the Wacom range, which can help remove wires from your desktop and is great when used on the go with a laptop.
The Wacom wireless kit is the perfect accessory to the Bamboo if you intend to paint outdoors
However, because of the Bamboo’s compact size it’s unlikely you’ll find yourself using it like a sketchpad on your knee and so it’s not as much of a necessity as it is with a larger Intuos.
Price
£75. For more information or to buy the Bamboo Pen and Touch, visit Wacom Web.
System specifications
Minimum specs:
For Windows XP/Vista/7
USB port
Optical drive
Broadband connection
For Mac OS X 10.5.8
Intel CPU
USB port
Optical drive
Broadband connection
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Although the Bamboo Pen and Touch may lack features when compared to more advanced tablets, those features come at a hefty price. At just £75 the Bamboo Pen and Touch is £125 less than an Intuos and £100 cheaper than the Medium Fun model. This means it’s the perfect graphics tablet for beginners and keen amateurs on a budget.
