General
BrandWacom
Item Height
1 millimetres
Item Width35 millimetres
Product Specifications
Product details
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
I bought this Wacom Intuos III A5 stylus pen input pad to use with specialist science software such as Genus, ImageJ and MetaMoprh image analysis packages. This software involves a lot of tracing, cutting, joining, including, excluding, etc lots of objects within complex images. This can be done with an optical mouse, but it is very jerky and error prone for any detailed drawing. So I bought this Wacom Intuos III A5 graphics tablet to help.
The Wacom stylus pen replaces the mouse for all the drawing and editing, but keep your standard wired/wireless optical mouse nearby for using windows and menu selection [as the stylus pen is too slow for this and it's really easy to jump between the two]. The stylus pen comes with its own pen holder for parking/grabbing the unit quickly. The Intuos A5 pad comes with it's own Wacom mouse, but my wireless Logitech Revolution MX is rather superior, so the Wacom unit often stays in the box. However when space gets limited I am forced to use the Wacom mouse [as an optical mouse mat scratches the Wacom pad, the Wacom having a felt base], and it is usable enough - far better than my old Graphire 2 one. The only downside is that when the Wacom mouse slides off the active area it freezes until slid back on. It takes a while to get used to using the stylus pen, but after a while you get proficient, provided you select it for the right [drawing/editing] task over the mouse and pad buttons. All I can say is that if you use Photoshop, Corel Painter X or any software where you find yourself tracing round or manually drawing lots of things, this Wacom tablet it really a good buy [granted I got my `free' at work].
I'd avoid the smaller A6 Wacom units if you have a PC screen size larger than 17" - this A5 unit is fine with my Dell 22" LCD, although I haven't tried the 'widescreen' version of the A5 Intuos pad. The stylus pen has a selection of nibs, and if the program allows it [e.g. Painter or PhotoShop], pressing harder on the pad makes the screen line thicker. The pen has a two way click button bar operated by a finger or thumb [for say the `left mouse click' etc..] and the top of the pen is used as the screen eraser. It's all very easy to use and far superior to working with a mouse for detailed image editing. Only disappointment was that the lift up writing flap is opaque silver, whereas on my old Graphire 2 it was transparent thick rubbery plastic and you could put a photo underneath to trace over. This opaque version lifts up for no apparent reason - perhaps it's so you can replace this A5 silver writing area if it gets badly scratched. You can trace over photos by resting them on the pad , but the stylus pen would then score into the paper, although I suppose anyone would just scan in a photo/illustration these days and `draw/trace' on it in software [e.g. in Photoshop or Painter X].
The only downside of this particular Wacom Intuos unit is that it has a large footprint on the desk [bigger than an A4 sheet, as it's just the writing area that's A5]. In our inner city office and microscope rooms the desktops are very crowded, so I have trouble getting the pad, LCD monitor, PC, and mouse all on the desk together. For this reason alone I sometimes wish I had bought the slightly smaller & cheaper Wacom Bamboo Medium pad [similar writing area, but smaller border] - but I suspect this 'professional' tablet is far better to use. This Intuos III pad is externally 34.5 x 26.2 x 1.3 cm thick, compared to the A5 Bamboo's Fun's [Medium size] 28.0 x 23.5 x 1.1 cm [the writing area is A5, i.e. half A4 size]. I use the programmable Intuos buttons on the pad for software specific functions rather than mouse functions. There's also a cool touch strip that doubles as a mousewheel. You can customise the Wacom mouse and stylus pen as well. You get a few spare nibs [as these slowly wear out in use]. You can buy spares for the whole tablet, including the stylus pen [I've lost two from my old A6 Graphire 2 pad I used at home/work, I'm sure people think it's a pen that's run out of ink and bin it, & they cost £30+ each to replace]. You can buy upgrades as well, e.g. a mouse with a crosshair curser sticking out of the front for tracing paper photographs etc.., and alternative stylus pens such as an air-brush and art-brush model [these are Intuos III only extras, and aren't available for the Bamboo]. Build quality of this Intuos A5 pad is pretty good, but I also bought the optional protective storage bag from Wacom [Baccus Biege] to ensure it survives transit from PC to PC [it's a bit like a laptop bag].
So I can highly recommend this Wacom pad for serious image editing. I found using it easy to adapt to, but then I have used an older Wacom Graphire 2 before. That said, most new users seem to take to the pad fairly quickly, provided they are carefully tracing/drawing details on-screen and so benefit by using it [the stylus pen is no substitute for general windows menu functions]. If you work within the educational sector [I work at Oxford University and that counts] or you are a pupil/student [or have a school kid in the house] you can buy discounted 'educational use only' versions of Wacom stylus pads [the same items, just sold at a far lower price] - so check this out if eligible.
The Wacom stylus pen replaces the mouse for all the drawing and editing, but keep your standard wired/wireless optical mouse nearby for using windows and menu selection [as the stylus pen is too slow for this and it's really easy to jump between the two]. The stylus pen comes with its own pen holder for parking/grabbing the unit quickly. The Intuos A5 pad comes with it's own Wacom mouse, but my wireless Logitech Revolution MX is rather superior, so the Wacom unit often stays in the box. However when space gets limited I am forced to use the Wacom mouse [as an optical mouse mat scratches the Wacom pad, the Wacom having a felt base], and it is usable enough - far better than my old Graphire 2 one. The only downside is that when the Wacom mouse slides off the active area it freezes until slid back on. It takes a while to get used to using the stylus pen, but after a while you get proficient, provided you select it for the right [drawing/editing] task over the mouse and pad buttons. All I can say is that if you use Photoshop, Corel Painter X or any software where you find yourself tracing round or manually drawing lots of things, this Wacom tablet it really a good buy [granted I got my `free' at work].
I'd avoid the smaller A6 Wacom units if you have a PC screen size larger than 17" - this A5 unit is fine with my Dell 22" LCD, although I haven't tried the 'widescreen' version of the A5 Intuos pad. The stylus pen has a selection of nibs, and if the program allows it [e.g. Painter or PhotoShop], pressing harder on the pad makes the screen line thicker. The pen has a two way click button bar operated by a finger or thumb [for say the `left mouse click' etc..] and the top of the pen is used as the screen eraser. It's all very easy to use and far superior to working with a mouse for detailed image editing. Only disappointment was that the lift up writing flap is opaque silver, whereas on my old Graphire 2 it was transparent thick rubbery plastic and you could put a photo underneath to trace over. This opaque version lifts up for no apparent reason - perhaps it's so you can replace this A5 silver writing area if it gets badly scratched. You can trace over photos by resting them on the pad , but the stylus pen would then score into the paper, although I suppose anyone would just scan in a photo/illustration these days and `draw/trace' on it in software [e.g. in Photoshop or Painter X].
The only downside of this particular Wacom Intuos unit is that it has a large footprint on the desk [bigger than an A4 sheet, as it's just the writing area that's A5]. In our inner city office and microscope rooms the desktops are very crowded, so I have trouble getting the pad, LCD monitor, PC, and mouse all on the desk together. For this reason alone I sometimes wish I had bought the slightly smaller & cheaper Wacom Bamboo Medium pad [similar writing area, but smaller border] - but I suspect this 'professional' tablet is far better to use. This Intuos III pad is externally 34.5 x 26.2 x 1.3 cm thick, compared to the A5 Bamboo's Fun's [Medium size] 28.0 x 23.5 x 1.1 cm [the writing area is A5, i.e. half A4 size]. I use the programmable Intuos buttons on the pad for software specific functions rather than mouse functions. There's also a cool touch strip that doubles as a mousewheel. You can customise the Wacom mouse and stylus pen as well. You get a few spare nibs [as these slowly wear out in use]. You can buy spares for the whole tablet, including the stylus pen [I've lost two from my old A6 Graphire 2 pad I used at home/work, I'm sure people think it's a pen that's run out of ink and bin it, & they cost £30+ each to replace]. You can buy upgrades as well, e.g. a mouse with a crosshair curser sticking out of the front for tracing paper photographs etc.., and alternative stylus pens such as an air-brush and art-brush model [these are Intuos III only extras, and aren't available for the Bamboo]. Build quality of this Intuos A5 pad is pretty good, but I also bought the optional protective storage bag from Wacom [Baccus Biege] to ensure it survives transit from PC to PC [it's a bit like a laptop bag].
So I can highly recommend this Wacom pad for serious image editing. I found using it easy to adapt to, but then I have used an older Wacom Graphire 2 before. That said, most new users seem to take to the pad fairly quickly, provided they are carefully tracing/drawing details on-screen and so benefit by using it [the stylus pen is no substitute for general windows menu functions]. If you work within the educational sector [I work at Oxford University and that counts] or you are a pupil/student [or have a school kid in the house] you can buy discounted 'educational use only' versions of Wacom stylus pads [the same items, just sold at a far lower price] - so check this out if eligible.
