Wacom CTH461 Bamboo Craft Tablet
Review by Timothy W. Graf : Bamboo Craft Works Well

First of this is my first digital pen and tablet. I am just beginning to move from drawing and sketching with a pencil and paper. I have a MacBook Air and I am using SketchBook Pro.

Drawing with the Bamboo Craft is a very pleasant experience. I can't comment on the surface or pen quality since I can't compare it to another product but it feels very natural and I am quite comfortable drawing with it. The major adjustment for me was getting used to the lag between the pen and the actual line drawn. Again, I can't compare this to other products but I would image a higher end Wacom tablet would perform better. Also I may be able to tweak this with settings for the tablet. All in all I am quite happy with this tablet.

As far as using the tablet for navigation, I do find the trackpad on my MacBook Air to be much smoother, The Bamboo craft isn't bad but it just doesn't seem to scroll or track quite as smoothly. I don't know, it could just be me.

All in all I would recommend this to someone who is looking for their fist drawing tablet. It works well and meets my needs as a casual, amateur, digital artist.

Wacom CTH461 Bamboo Craft Tablet
Review by S. Saunders : I'm using the touch pad, and loving it

I've never used tablet or pen technology with my PC or iMac, and have just installed the Wacom Bamboo Craft on my iMac today. Although I hope to learn to use the pen functions in the future, my focus now is on using the touch pad. I have a lukewarm attitude toward touch pads, no doubt a result of mixed experiences with them on different notebook computers. But I'm prone to hand and wrist discomfort from too much repetitive motion at the computer - in my case from the mouse more than the keyboard. As much as I like my Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse with Bluetooth Wireless (Graphite) K72281US, I thought that having a touchpad option for my iMac and other computers would provide a welcome change for my hands and fingers.

The tablet installed easily on my iMac, as did the driver update which was easy to find on the Wacom website. I enjoyed the tutorial, and although I'm saving the pen functions for the future, I went through that part too.

I have been using the tablet instead of the mouse to navigate with my browser, and finding it easy although I'm still new at it. The tablet is sleek and quite a nice complement to my iMac, and I like the size. It's small enough to fit onto my desk, but large enough to be workable with the iMac's 24 inch screen. I've been using the touch functions of the tablet instead of the mouse to compose this review, instead of automatically reaching for the mouse. If I can get into the multi-touch pad habit, I may reduce my ibuprofen consumption - such as it is - caused by painful hands. The Bamboo Craft costs more than ibuprofen, but preventing recurrence of hand and wrist discomfort is, as the commercials say, priceless.

I can see from my research, including the reviews on this product page, that this product has much more to offer than the rather basic tasks I'm using it for at this time. However, I would encourage anyone who'd like a change from constant mouse use, to consider a product like this one, with its multi-touch pad capability - even if you don't get a model which, like this one, also has the pen functions.

Wacom CTH461 Bamboo Craft Tablet
Review by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) : Bang for it's buck! These Wacom Bamboo tablets are awesome! Easy to use!

I have been an avid user of Wacom products for almost a decade now and for digital artwork, I still use my Intuous 3 Graphic Tablet. But now I have a new Wacom tablet known as the Bamboo Craft, part of Wacom's latest line of budget-priced Bamboo tablets (from lowest to highest in price: (all black) Bamboo Pen, Bamboo Touch and Bamboo Pen & Touch. And over the $100 range are the Bamboo Craft and Bamboo Fun in metallic silver).

The Bamboo Craft are for those who want a tablet for their Mac or PC and all that is required is that you have a USB port and the room/table space to place your tablet.

The Bamboo Craft is about 9.8 x 6.9 (with the active area at 5.8 x 3.6). For those that need something larger, the Bamboo Fun is about 13.3 x 8.8 (with an active area about 8.5 x 5.4). Note: This is very important, it's great to have more active area space (I believe the bigger the better) but having owned several in the past, what I've learned is that it also comes down to your desk working area and sometimes having something too big may not be practical. Also, purchase a tablet that works with your budget.

I. INSTALLATION & TRAINING

Install of the software on both the PC and Mac are quite easy. After install, you can partake in a few training lessons on how to use your fingers (aka Multi-touch) and use the tablet like a mouse. You can click on the pad, like you would click on a mouse to achieve point, click and move. You can also use your finger to navigate and use the buttons to click. Two fingers to zoom or right click. Motioning your hands clockwise or counter clockwise to spin and rotate an image. And of course, a pressure sensitive pen which you can do the same thing but also take part in making handwritten notes via ink (or your graphic design software) and also for your artwork. Also, the buttons and movements can be customized via control panel or system preferences (via PC or Mac).

I tested this on my Mac G4 with OS 10.5 (it will work with 10.4.8 or higher) and also my iMac (10.6) and it worked fine. Tested it on Windows XP (w/ Service Pack 2) and it works fine (it also works with windows 7 and Vista).

For those who suffer carpal tunnel, mouse finger or tendonitis, a Bamboo Craft (or lower device like the Bamboo Touch) can definitely make things easier on your hands. And it's not hard to use, the training on how to use the Bamboo tablet is comprehensive and easy.

II. Ink and accompanying software

For those who want to leave sticky notes, a hand recognition and art software known as Ink is included. But this software may be a bit basic for some people and so the good news is that if you don't own Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter, the Bamboo Craft comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 (Windows) and 6.0 (Mac), Corel Painter Essentials 4.0) and Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 WE3. And for many people that don't need all the other advance parts of the more expensive software, this software is all they need.

You also get a DVD with 26 scrapbooking lessons from Jane Conner-ziser and a library of digital craft embellishments. A free 8x8 photo album from Shutterfly, a free online store from Cafe Press, a free one year subscription to Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine and free online training with [...].

III. TESTS

I managed to test out the Bamboo Craft on the web and scrolling, going back, cut and paste were easy using the tablet. The pressure sensitive pen is also easy to use. I tested it on Adobe Photoshop CS3 and also on Corel Painter 8 (and I'm sure they work perfectly on CS4 and CP10). Pressure sensitive pen works perfectly.

It's important to note that learning a pen for digital painting or work, takes some time. Learning how to use a tablet and the pen to use more paint and less paint takes time, so don't expect to paint something incredible the first time using the pen if you are a beginner. Be patient and practice. If your main drive is to paint, I highly recommend with a larger tablet such as an Intuous but for basics, the Bamboo Fun may be all that you need since its larger than the Craft but if you don't have the room, the Craft may be perfect for you. Of course, if you want to go hardcore and want the best (and very expensive in the $1000-$2,000 range), Wacom offers the Cintiq which has the actual digital screen display on the tablet and are magnificent.

And there is no need to worry as it won't conflict with your keyboard, mouse or any other device.

JUDGMENT CALL:

For a budget device and for all the bells and whistles it comes with, the Wacom's Bamboo Craft is a wonderful device for multi-touch, writing, creative artwork, painting, etc. I truly believe those with hand problems such as carpal tunnel, tendinitis or mouse finger will find these Bamboo touchpads much to their liking and creative artists, all that they need until they can upgrade to an Intuous or a Cintiq.

Again, for those on a budget, I recommend the Bamboo Fun for its size but the Bamboo Craft and other lower-priced Bamboo tablets may be all that you need, depending on what the need is or what kind of work you will be doing on it.

But I've owned quite a few Wacom tablets right now and I remember back then, the budget and basic release of Wacom tablet's were simple but these Bamboo tablets....the sleek look, what they are capable of and all that is offered with it is pretty awesome. So, if you are looking into this device is highly recommended.

Wacom CTH461 Bamboo Craft Tablet
Review by Jane Public : Excellent hardware, excellent software bundle

This item is same as the Bamboo Pen and Touch with a few differences:

1) Item color
2) Cost is slightly higher, by a few dollars, reason 3 explains why
3) Craft comes bundled with a terrific selection of top notch software that is not included with the other Bamboo models. The bundle is designed to assist not only in learning how to utilize Tablet technology but also provides the ability to dive right in and begin using quality tools to manipulate media.

If you are working on photos, creating invitations, announcements or simply creating art from the ground up, this tablet truly gives you everything you need. I typically would not pay extra just to have access to a software bundle, finding them most often substandard and worthless, however this one is truly impressive. Software bundle is more than worth the nominal added cost.

Wacom CTH461 Bamboo Craft Tablet
Review by Gwhiz : First time tablet user

First off let me preface this review by saying I'm a new pen/tablet user. I've been working with the wacom tablet for a couple days and I'm beginning to really like it! I don't usually write reviews, but usually depend on them for information. This is one product I really like and wanted to share my experiences...

The touch feature of the tablet is good and is easy to learn especially if you are used to using an Iphone or an Ipod touch. The only problem I have is with scrolling, but I think that's because I either swipe too fast or I'm not gesturing in a true vertical motion.

The best feature is the Pen and is fairly intuitive to use. The tablet is set up to mimic the screen - placing the pen in the top corner of the tablet brings your cursor right to the top corner - no more dragging and picking up the mouse to get it up to the upper corners, great if you have a large screen. My favorite feature is that the 2 click buttons on the pen can be programmed to a pop up menu that contains the commands you use the most. I pick up the mouse more by habit than by need, and with the programmable buttons and I don't even need to use the keyboard except to type!

I do a lot of drag and dropping and resizing of objects in graphic and scrap booking apps and the pen and tablet combination is far superior than using a mouse, in terms of precision and speed.

I use the Tablet with Mac OS snow leopard and loaded a new driver from the website right out of the box and it worked just fine, bit be warned that Corel Essentials has a bug with the brush drawer and does not work correctly, their website states a software update is due out late this month to correct the problem in Snow leopard. In addition, the tablet works quirky with VM Fusion - but then my mouse also works sporadicly (though less so) with that program at times...