The product arrived on time. The tablet does have some minor scratches that show it has been used, nothing to be worried about though. You can tell that the box has been opened before, but if this little details are not a problem to you and you could use the discount, I would recommend you to give it a go. It's really practically new and it works perfectly well. It has a 1 year warranty as well. Wacom CTH661 Sliver Bamboo Fun (Factory Refurbished)
I'd been wanting to get a Wacom tablet for some time, since most of my artist friends use them for their work, but I just wasn't able to come up with the $400 for a new Intuos. We starving artists (and there's many of us) have to come up with other legal means to get all those fancy computer tools.
So when I saw the listing for this refurbished Bamboo Fun, which is essentially an Intuos 3 with its over 1000 levels of sensitivity, at less than half the price of a new Intuos, I jumped. And I'm glad I did.
The Bamboo arrived a day early from it's scheduled time, which was a great way to start. It was unmarked, no scratches from previous ownership, and the Corel Painter Essentials 4.0 that came with it works wonderfully. It also comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements and a program I'm unfamiliar with called Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0. The latter two programs would not work on my system, because I have a Macintosh Mini that runs on the PowerPC chip, and these two programs are designed for the Intel chip. This was unfortunate, but I'm not really all that put out, since I already have a full version of Photoshop. It's something to keep in mind when ordering.
Getting the Bamboo set up was absurdly simple, and as soon as I started messing around with the pen, I started mentally screaming to myself "WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS SOONER???!!!" It is SO wonderful being able to do detail work in Photoshop and Illustrator with the dexterity of a pen or pencil instead of a big, clunky mouse that gets your hand cramped up from the muscular stress. Drawing is easy once you get used to looking at the screen instead of your sketchbook. I'm still in the process of learning what the tablet can do, but I have absolutely no regrets about buying it.
One niggling critique I do have is the small programs that come with the tablet. They're designed for kids, really, and are almost useless for working artists. It does have one program that, with a little work by Wacom, could be really wonderful. This is the Doodler, a little sketchbook drawing program, with it's own drawing interface screen. My main hassle with it is the annoying way it has of making a big blob on the page when you put the pen down anywhere. When you actually start drawing, the line quality is just fine, but when you stop, and then start a new line elsewhere, again it puts a big blob on the page. Maybe I've got the sensitivity controls too fine or something, but I haven't figured out how to make it quit doing that. If this issue could be taken care of, the program would be a lot more fun to use. But again, this is a minor issue.
For all you starving artists out there who are low on spending cash, I would heartily recommend picking up the Refurbished Bamboo Fun. It's worth the money, is plenty sensitive enough to do most of the work you'll end up doing, and if not it will at least get you started until you can get enough money scraped together for the Intuos 4 with all it's bells and whistles. Get it. Do it NOW!
We are very pleased with this product. The drawing space is especially comfortable. Don't let the fact that it is refurbished stop you. It makes an expensive product affordable for a small business or a student, and as the primary user I have found no complaints about it's performance.
I like this tablet because it is similar to my old one. I like that it's more sensitive to the stylus movements and that it has a slight texture, making it feel like paper. The only problem with that is it eats away at the stylus tip faster. I had my old tablet for about five years and only had to replace the stylus tip once. This new one seems to have to be replaced every 10-15 hours of use. This was stated in the description of the product, so I knew what I was buying. I did receive the tablet with a few scratches, but it doesn't really bother me because it's something that has to be sought after. I do miss having a mouse, but it's replaced with finger-touch.
I go to an art college and I was looking around for a good tablet while keeping within a reasonable budget. This is the second tablet I've ever bought because my first one was not pressure sensitive, and I'm very satisfied with this purchase. The description warned about possible slight scratches or dings on the tablet, but I was surprised it was in such great condition; there were hardly any noticeable scratches at all. It might be that I just lucked out on one of the better ones that came out of the factory... but honestly if you don't care about little things like that, just get the factory refurbished because it saves a lot of money.
On the tablet itself, it is obviously not as savvy or super-sensitive as the Intuos line, but it picks up pen pressure pretty well. The size may be a little on the big side (it's only about 2 inches shorter than my huge laptop), but it's pretty thin and lightweight so it's not much of a hassle to carry. The only problem I have with it is sometimes after I plug it into my laptop, it takes a while for it to "connect", or for the computer to register that it's been plugged in. I don't know if it's just a problem with my computer or with the tablet itself, but it can be a bother. The installation was also a little slow as I had to download the newest driver from the Wacom website in order to get the pen pressure function working with Photoshop.
All in all very handy, so if you're a student it works great and gets the job done without having you spend too much. - Drawing - Adobe Illustrator - Bamboo Fun - Art'
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