ACDSee or Bamboo/Wacom?

[CrystalMarie]

I have to decide today if I want to buy ACDSee or the Bamboo Tablet by Wacom. If you could only buy one of the two, which would you buy? Which is more usefull if you could only have one of them? Thanks for any input!

[Maikku]

I can't imagine being without my tablet so I'd go for the tablet first.

[Abby]

Hard choice :) ... I love ACDSee, but I adore my tablet, so I'd go for the Wacom!

[flrebareba]

I have the Wacom and love it....

[Noremacc]

I am so glad I saw this thread!! I had it in the back of my mind that tablets started at around $250 and up... and something that I wouldn't be able to get for a while... but I saw this thread, and since I just got ACDSee and know how much that costs, it got me researching this tablet!! Now I am excited... I know what is going on my wish list for my birthday!!

[CrystalMarie]

Thanks for the replies. Turns out, I added up my other Christmas money and since I'm only $30 short of being able to get them both, I'm goign to go ahead and get them both! Yippie! (I have a good husband too. :) )

Noremacc, I read about the Bamboo in Creating Keepsakes magazine and they said its wonderful. And I was still unsure about the big or small version, but I read on a Wacom board and it seemed like they liked the small just fine or better, which is half the price. So that was cool!

Would you all agree?

[danzinst]

I just got my Bamboo Fun Tablet installed and I can't believe how easy it is to use.I love it.
I got the medium size from Digitalgeaphicsresources for $174.52 (free shipping) and it came with a full version of PSE 5,Corel Painter Essentials 3.0 and Nik Color Efex 2.
Among some other other discounts is a 50% discount for PhotoShop CS3.
Did I say I love it? Yes!

[faerywings]

Tough one! I am glad you were able to get both, I don't know I would be able to choose! - I don't have Bamboo Fun, just awacam graphire. Are the tablets much different?

But you know, if I have to choose, I think I'd still pick ACDSee Photo Manager, I can't imagine scrapping without it. I'd lost- literally wandering around very messy and cluttered hard drives :)

[Kathleen]

I was in a chat last week with Irene, and she mentioned that she had a Genius brand tablet. I had never heard of them before. If you google, lots of results, but here is one review:

Review: Genius MousePen Graphics Tablet (http://painting.about.com/od/digitalart/gr/GeniusMousePen.htm)

Maybe Irene will pop in to this thread and comment on what she has, or you could send her a PM.

~ Kathleen

[reneeshannon]

I have the Wacom Intuos 3 and I got it on sale at Best Buy for $80. I'm not sure how I managed that one, but I love my tablet!!!

[maryjos]

I think the size of your monitor to some degree dictates the size of the tablet that would be best. I have a huge 27 inch screen, so went with the medium...which still feels a tad small to me!

I'm still new to using the tablet, but I really couldn't imagine being without ACDSee. Unfortunately you can't use something free like Picasa initially and then switch and get your data into another program, so I think it's a really good thing to get it as soon as possible, before your collection of kits gets too overwhelming. I'm still trying to get caught up and probably never will for the amount of files I still have to get through. But if you get get both now, that is certainly the best way to go!

[faerywings]

There are ways of importing data from Picasa, PSE etc- leave it to COinnie and Heidi at DSI to figure out how:
Adobe PE Organizer, Picassa & DIS to ACDSee Photo Manager: A way to transfer your digital kits from a previous organizer to ACDSee and lose as little as possible. (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/phpmyfaq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=2&id=16&artlang=en)

Hope this helps someone!

[maryjos]

Unfortunately that import really doesn't bring in much from something like Picasa. The problem is that it does everything in its own proprietary database, it doesn't write anything to the EXIF/IPTC data. Actually, ACDSee is fairly similar, although if you have the Pro version, you can do keywords to the IPTC data so other programs like Lightroom can see it. Not sure about the other two programs they mention, if they do keywords to IPTC data, that would indeed be a good way to redo at least some of your work. But as the tutorial mentions, this mainly is for jpegs, it doesn't help much with pngs, since they don't support EXIF/IPTC data, and of course, a great percentage of scrapbooking files are png.

[crouch79]

Does the Bamboo Fun that comes with Photoshop Elements does it have an organizer too?

[maryjos]

I don't recall is PSE5 has Bridge included, it's certainly not got anything like ACDSee that is really worth using longterm for scrapbooking.

[carlalee]

PSE has the Organizer included. (I know PSE5 has it because I have that.) PS has Bridge included. -c-

[Jenni]

Late to the conversation....but I love and use them both!!! Without a doubt though if you have to pick one go for the tablet. ACDSEE isn't that expensive so it's won't take that long to save up again and the PSE organizer can do the job for the short term. The tablet is wonderful!!!

[ferrongirl]

so glad i happened onto this thread - and just before Christmas too! I have been wanting a graphics tablet and now I know what to tell my hubby is on my wish list.
CrystalMarie - how have you been finding the Bamboo/Wacom? I ask, because I live in a VERY small town and this is the ONLY tablet available here. I could get one online, but that works out more expensive when you factor in shipping etc.
...and not to seem too ignorant, but what is ACDSee? Could someone please explain? Thanks.
Also - I am still working with an ANCIENT version of PSE - will the graphics tablet be compatible with it, do you think?
Hope everyone has an AWESOME Christmas.

[guitargirl]

How ancient is your PSE? I have PSE5 and the tablet is great with it. Even if your version of PSE doesn't support some of the tablet features (like pressure sensitivity), it would still be helpful for any detail work.

[ferrongirl]

How ancient is your PSE? I have PSE5 and the tablet is great with it. Even if your version of PSE doesn't support some of the tablet features (like pressure sensitivity), it would still be helpful for any detail work.

Lisa - thx for yr reply. LOL - ancient enough that I don't know HALF the terms that most of the ladies are using on this forum... I think it's still the version that come with my computer when I got it and had Windows98 on it!!! I have since upgraded to WindowsXP but never upgraded my version of PSE - I don't think. My DH is the one that does all of those wonderful things for me. He did just recently get me the Photoshop CSE (I think that's what it is), but I haven't put it onto my puter yet as I don't know if u can have PSE and CSE on there at the same time and I am reluctant to change - I am SO un-computer savvy its scary!!!!
Anyway, I think I will get the tablet and if it doesn't work with my version of PSE, then it will force to upgrade.:tup:
Later