au.was.here.

went to Virra Mall last night hunting for a new sofa set with hubby. partially, it was an excuse to check out a Wacom tablet that i have been lusting after for the past 2 weeks. i've been specially feeling this since after the Photo Summit because of the photos i want to post process.

i was on the fence between the small Bamboo Fun (3.5" by 6) and the bigger Genius M609 (6"by 9") ever since i read Mr. Jay Alonzo's review of it. so just as the stores were closing at Virra last night, i reached a still open store and was checking out the 609 when i glanced upon a smaller Genius box of the G-Pen 450 (4" by 5.5"). the price tag on it was P1800.00 and it was approximately the size of the P5600.00 Wacom Bamboo Fun. hmmm....enticing!!!

i chatted about it with the shopkeeper who actually looked familiar. when i glanced, at the signage, i realized i was at Abacus Computers which i had already heard before was owned by a fellow hobby photographer named Handy. it was not too long before we were already comparing notes of the just recent seminars we had both attended: the Photo Summit and the SPPP Nudes. so perhaps to help a fellow photog out in deciding, nice guy Handy told me to try out the small Genius for a few days and if i don't like it, that i am welcome to return it! now who could resist such a deal!

so i came home with the package and excitedly installed it even before i sat down to dinner. after the initial handling curve, i started messing with photos. i chose to play edit one i was going to trash because it was a bit softer than i would have liked. after, i was done with it though, i am totally considering keeping the little gizmo. the photo at the top of this review is the result while the one on the left is the original.

i am liking this little device and it is fast growing on me. since i don't do illustrations anyway and i haven't used a pen tablet for over a decade, i am not really missing anything in terms of actual use. the old (and expensive) Wacom i had years ago wouldn't even come close in term of sensitivity to this one. for that price too, it has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity against the Bamboo's 512. it does have 29 programmable hotkeys BUT it would have been nice if it at least had a dedicated zoom and scroll button for more convenience. however, i did find a workaround--the keyboard's hotkeys for Photoshop and CorelDraw, where i would probably use this thingy the most, would just have to do for me if i were to keep this.

and of course, it doesn't look quite as handsome as the Wacom Bamboo Fun but it does seriously make me wonder if plunking down the extra P3,800.00 to get the good looks and the zoom/scroll buttons is worth it. besides, having a pen to manipulate in Photoshop is already a definite improvement over my customary editing with a bar of soap...err...mouse.

ok, one more night to think about it. i'll decide tomorrow. but the way things are right now, i think the Genius just might stay with me for more than a just short while.