wacom tablet + CS4 + No pressure sensitivity

Wynter, my Trust tablet (TB-6300) has around the same price tag as your Wacom Bamboo. So how does "you get what you pay for" apply in this case?

I normally agree with this principal, and for me more expensive hardware has almost always proved considerably better than cheap stuff. (I say *almost*, because no rule can ever be applied across the board. Hardware suppliers, like the fashion industry, often slap overly excessive price tags on their products to increase *perceived value*.)

But in this case, we are talking about two products that cost very similar amounts. So surely we should expect similar levels of service and support? I'm just illustrating a company failing to provide the level of service one might expect, and strongly recommending that NOBODY buys anything from Trust again. This is not just a problem with their tablets, but across all their products.

Finally, I simply don't use my tablet enough to justify spending hundreds of pounds on a good Wacom. I'm primarily a programmer, and I find the type of graphics I mostly work on are actually easier with the mouse because I work with precise alignments. The tablet is just for fun.

>As Vicky Cravey used to say

:)

you're old!

HA ha! XD

When I first got Photoshop v3 years ago, I asked "the digital guy" at work, "Should I get a Wacom, or would one of those cheaper ones suffice?"

He said all of our customers who went the cheaper route had problems, and ended up getting the Wacom anyway.

After fifteen years or so, my ArtzII was still going strong. I'm glad, though that Wacom stopped supporting tablets with a serial interface under Vista, since it allowed me to justify my new Intuous.

And, when I had the pressure sensitivity problem, a quick driver upgrade was all it took to correct it. I fully expect this one to last fifteen years as well.

As Vicky Cravey used to say, "I love my Wacom".

I am a student learning the Adobe products, currently CS3, the school hasn't moved to CS4 yet but probably soon. For Christmas I was able to spend far less money than I expected on a tablet. After doing research and talking to professionals who use tablets and swear by them I decided to get a Wacom Bamboo Fun as a beginner and since I am a paper & pen/pencil traditional artist a tablet seemed the best thing to add.

To be quite honest guys, you quibble about preformance and price, but the old adage you get what you pay for seems to be glaring you in the face. (Which is also why I choose the Wacom.) Those who have the Wacom's seem to have gotten working, if not quick responses. I'd have to say they have gotten a return on their investment. And if you use the tablet that much then perhaps you should see it as an investment in your work. I don't quibble the price if I get the quality I need for my traditional artist tools, so why do so for the computer ones?

I hope to not have the problems being discussed here once I switch to CS4. And it's been an educational adventure reading this particular forum.

Thanks and may your work reflect your talent.

Wynter

Pete - half those "independent" manufacturers are just slapping a different label on the same hardware and reference driver from a single supplier.

Right now, I only know of 5 independent tablet drivers out there, and about 15 labels. The number of independent drivers might be lower, but I haven't disassembled all of them.

Again, we have no idea why they have to change their code. All we have to do is change the version number and their driver breaks. That points to some shaky code in their driver.

We've done everything we can on the Adobe side.

Somehow Trust's attitude does not surprise me, after the response I had from their support dept. Please don't think I'm being hard on Adobe; you haven't seen the fuming email I sent back to Trust after they refused to even acknowledge the driver issue.

So: at least Adobe are prepared to actually have a discussion with their customers over this issue, rather than just slamming their hands over their ears.

However; I still don't feel that you've addressed the issue that *every tablet manufacturer has experienced the exact same problems with the CS4 release*. To claim that this is a problem with individual rogue drivers is laughable: are you really saying that each of these entirely independent manufacturers has used exactly the same version-dependent hacks in their code? If this is the case, then surely this points at some Photoshop issue that they are having to work around which has either changed or disappeared in CS4? I only say this as a software designer with around 20 years' experience and a fairly keen sense of "code smell".

Please don't think I'm trying to insinuate that anyone is not doing their job properly. As we both know, it's *impossible* to write any piece of code (especially one the size of Photoshop) without there being some bugs, somewhere. But when the blame is then placed entirely at the feet of the hardware vendors rather than admitting that perhaps there is a small piece of the puzzle being held back by Adobe; I mean, c'mon, are you guys trying to claim that you're superhumans with brains the size of planets? No, so you can't write perfect software, no-one can. Frankly this leads me to believe that there is more to this and you are unwilling to divulge.

Nevertheless, Photoshop is a great piece of software, and it's a real shame that I'm not able to take advantage of some of the great new features in CS4. Maybe one day I'll have enough use for a tablet to justify spending £££ on a Wacom and then I'll upgrade from CS2. Until then, *whoever's fault it is*, Photoshop is a broken experience for me.

I hope you appreciate my frustration (which be assured is felt far more toward Trust than yourselves), and the reasons why I am not entirely satisfied by the responses you have given.

Pete - because it takes 2 to make a dialog. We ask, they don't reply. Wacom talks to us and works with us, and some other tablet makers work with us.

And you seem to be lumping a lot of different issues together here.

I'm sorry your tablet does work. But there is nothing Adobe can do about that. Only you or your tablet maker can solve that issue.
The problem is *exactly* in the driver code written by your tablet manufacturer. End of story.

Chris, I'm not questioning Adobe's adherance to standards, I'm simply asking why there appears to be no dialog between yourselves and the tablet manufacturers, to ascertain exactly why they are having these problems? As we are seeing, even Wacom have to update their drivers, so this appears to affect ALL tablets, not just discount ones. Wacom just have more resources available to respond more quickly with driver updates.

I am not trying to assign any blame here, I just think that you should have more of a clue than "we really don't know why". Since tablets are a crucial tool for (I imagine) a large proportion of your user base, shouldn't you be doing a little more than pointing an ineffectual finger at the hardware companies and leaving it at that?

Let me put it this way... my CS4 trial has now expired and I will not be purchasing a full license, since it doesn't work with my tablet. I don't care whose fault it is, I just want the problem fixed, and you are losing out on money until that happens.

Both yourselves and the hardware manufacturers appear to be claiming "it's not our fault" but ultimately SOMETHING is wrong, and frankly I won't believe your claim until someone can tell me EXACTLY what the problem is. This is why you need start a dialog with the manufacturers, or more specifically the programmers writing their drivers. Do you see my point now?

Pete - Adobe is writing to the standards. We really don't know why certain tablet makers have such problems writing their drivers. Not all manufacturers are having that much difficulty (but the fact that many of the discount tablets come from the same source and get different labels on them may make it look like more have a problem than really do).

I have news about the Beta Driver. Through my blog I got the notice than the Beta Driver using MousePen 8x6 Doesn't work on Windows Vista.