Wacom Bamboo One Graphics Tablet
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1 new or used available from £41.74
Average customer review:Product Description
Wacom BAMBOO ONE GRAPHIC TABLET ENGLISH EN CTF430SEN Mice Graphics Tablets
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #7373 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: Wacom
- Model: CTF430SEN
- Released on: 2007-09-14
- Platform: Windows XP
- Dimensions: 1.63 pounds
Editorial Reviews
Manufacturer's Description
Bamboo One is an ideal tool for new users who would like to explore the possibilities of a pen tablet. With a brushed silver design, the tablet and digital pen offer a simple and intuitive way of interacting with a computer, enabling a personal touch to be added to digital photographs, invitations, birthday cards and emails. Simply plug and play, Bamboo One also presents an easy and quick way of navigating office applications.
Box Contents
Customer Reviews
An Amazing Product For An Amazing Price!
I bought this because I wanted a graphics tablet (having never had one before) but I didn't want to spend too much. I expected it to be okay, I didn't expect it to be fantastic because it's cheaper than a lot of other graphics tablets. I was shocked - it is absolutely fantastic - couldn't be better in my opinion. I don't have much to compare against because I've never had one before, but I can't imagine it being any better, it works perfectly and is very accurate. The only thing that I can think of as to why you shouldn't buy this one is the size - you can buy tablets with bigger surface sizes - but to be honest, for me (and most people I expect) the size is plenty big enough.
So, I could end my review there but there are a couple of other points I want to make:
1. I am using it on Windows Vista (don't know if that's helpful to anyone but I thought I'd mention it in case you are wondering about compatibility).
2. I sometimes use it as a mouse because it is easy to use for that purpose.
3. I use the included art software when I just want to have a bit of fun and a laugh by making a picture - you can choose paints, crayons, stencils, etc.
4. I use it with Photoshop CS4 when I want to do some more serious work - and it works perfectly.
5. When I first installed it I didn't bother installing the drivers that come on the disc because Vista automatically installed some. However, it did not work well with Vista's drivers, the cursor jumped, did not move smoothly, and did not appear in relation to where I clicked on the tablet. So, I installed Wacom's drivers which came on the disc included. My PC told me I needed to restart to finish installing drivers - after restart it worked perfectly. Cursor didn't jump, moved smoothly and appeared on the screen in relation to where I clicked on the tablet.
6. The box - okay so it doesn't really matter what the box it comes in is like as long as it does the job, but I'll mention it anyway. It's beautiful, simple as.
7. You don't actually have to touch the tablet with the pen to move the cursor on screen - you can just hover the pen above it. Touch the tablet with the pen click (as thought you are left clicking with a mouse).
8. There's a light on the tablet which is orange, and goes green when you tap the pen on the tablet to do a click.
9. The pen is really light and battery free - which I think is good.
10. It doesn't need to be plugged in to the mains, just into USB.
So, those points are things I think you will find useful to know before purchasing.
In conclusion:
An amazing graphics tablet at an amazing price. I can't recommend it enough. It's the first tablet I have ever had, and it's better than I ever could have expected. Don't hesitate to buy it, unless you really want one with a bigger surface.
Thanks for reading this review, I hope you found it useful - please click on yes next to 'Was this review helpful to you?' if you did.
Not a toy
This was bought as a Christmas present for my 12 year old who loves drawing painting and art in general. I choose this (the cheapest) product as Amazon offer free postage and the price was similar to a computer game. I thought that if it was not up to the task it could be put onto Ebay and replaced with a more advanced product.
My concerns were that with only an A6 drawing area it would be far to small for any real use and that the drawing pad would cause a conflict with the mouse.
Both of these have proven unfounded, while postcard sized sounds tiny, if you've ever done any drawing using a mouse, you're moving the mouse around over a very limited area most of the time - This little pad is fine for detailed work.
There is no clash on my PC with the mouse either, the two items both work at the same time. When you first plug the device in, Windows XP seems to see it as a second mouse or a touch pad, once the drivers are installed the pen and pad map themselves to the screen, so top left of the the pad maps to top left of the screen, bottom right to bottom right. You can use the pen and pad instead of the mouse, but while selecting menus is easy, double clicking by pressing the tip to the pad twice seems overly tricky.
The Art Rage drawing program that is included is pretty impressive, offering a decent set of drawing tools and it seems well enough programmed to be more stable than most free software.
One of the best things is the ability to vary the pressure on the pad to produce thin or thick lines, compatibility depends on the graphics program you are using - The included Art Rage software uses this to good effect as does our copy of Photoshop 7.
Build quality of the pad feels excellent, the pen feels a bit cheap but seems tough.
If you just want to get a feel of the concept of a graphics table to see if it suits you, I'd recommend this unit as a cheap way find out.
LOVE IT!!!
Firstly, I'm a full time graphic designer. I work on a mac and I use various pro design tools. I'd had a go on a friends wacom tablet before but the huge price tag put me off. When a friend tipped me off about the new Bamboo, I couldn't resist at a price like that. It's made by Wacom so the quality is all there. I thought about getting the Bamboo fun, but unlike the US version the UK version doesn't come with a mouse so it's not quite as good a buy. But it's still great value even without a mouse. If you want the extra button on the top of the pen (eraser) then go for the fun version - but it will cost you double the bamboo one. I figured I didn't need the extra buttons (i don't) so i went for the cheaper bamboo one.
As far as the bamboo one goes, the feel is amazing. Even the packaging is cool. The wacom website plays down the bamboo one as though it were a kids toy but it's certainly not. The preferences section gives you loads of options, and is particularly good for setting the buttons to different actions. You'll want to change one of the buttons to undo - you'll be using this a lot if you're sketching.
You can use the bamboo one like a mouse for navigating around the screen - it stretches the tablet to fit whatever screen you have (again you can fiddle with the preferences) and it's a delight to use. If you've never used one before it will feel a bit strange at first but after half an hour you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
If you're mulling over whether or not to get one, then mull no more. Although the pad doesn't have the extra navigation buttons as the fun version, it's a really nice clean and uncluttered design. I can't recommend the Bamboo One enough.



