Wacom Bamboo Capture

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In the last few years, I have been working  a lot with graphic design and on photography projects. As part of those projects, I have found that most of these project need the aid of something more than just a mouse or touchpad to complete a project. When it comes to drawing or fine detail photo editing, using a mouse is messy, you need something that gives you more control of your cursor. To get more control, you need a digitizing table and pen. With a digitizing tablet, you have more control over how the cursor moves and even works like traditional pen and paper.

I have been using different digitizing tablets for mostly close in editing. Over the years, I have used professional Wacom devices, entry level Wacom devices, and oversized artist digitizing tablets from other brands. I found that my favorite brand of digitizing tablets is Wacom and it doesn’t even have to be a professional model to do what I need.

Over the years, Wacom has been an industry leader in digitizing tablets. They have created digitizing tablets for basic users to the professional graphic designers that can’t live with out them.

They offer two different digitizing tablets, the Intuos Pen Tablets for professionals and the Bamboo series that is for the everyday users and for designers only needing a budget friendly digitizing tablet.

Wacom Bamboo Capture

Recently a client sent me a new Wacom Bamboo Capture digitizing tablet to test and review. Today’s article is my thoughts on this little digitizing tablet.

When the Bamboo Capture arrived, my first thought was on the packaging and branding of the Capture. The box and package looks great and it impressed me on how much thought went into the design of the packaging, the inner/outer box and even the display of the contents when you first open the inner box. 

Design

After pulling the Wacom Bamboo Capture from the box, I found the tablet to be a light weight device that stylish and will look good on any office desk. Along with the sleek design, you also get two programmable buttons that are in black and designed to look good with the sleek sliver side of the tablet.

The best part of the design is, it can be used by left handers or right handers. In the past, most digitizing tablets were only design to work for right handed users. If a model was released for a left handed users, it might only be user friendly to left handed users. This would mean, right handed users would have to deal with the design or look for a different model that worked for them.

But the one thing I really do not like about the design is, it is on the small size. The small size is great for those on the go, but if its set up as a stationary device that doesn’t leave the desk, then it might a bit on the small size. Its dimensions are 0.4 by 10.9 by 6.9 inches (H x W x D)

Features

The Bamboo Capture comes with the pen and tablet, usb cord, Autodesk Sketchbook Express, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Nik Color Filters, in addition to spar pen nibs and the quick start guide.

The tablet also features multi-touch input, tablet zoom on photos, scroll through albums, navigate your computer via hand gestures.

One thing you might find with some pen and tablet setups is, that the device is powered by batteries. But with the Bamboo Capture, that’s not the case, its powered via USB. Even the pen doesn’t need a battery! Without a battery, the pen is feather light.

Using the Bamboo Capture

Setting up the tablet was easy, it took just a few minutes on my Windows 7 desktop. Since I already had Adobe Photoshop and other graphic design related tools on the system, there was no need to install the drivers or software.

If you aren’t familiar with a digitizing tablet, you might want to install the software. It comes with a great set of instructional tutorials and a few other things that will help get you set up using the Bamboo Capture.

After setting up the tablet, I found it easy to use and I have already used the tablet on several projects.

Final Thoughts

Overall I love the Bamboo Capture. Out of all the digitizing tablets under the Bamboo series, the capture is a good entry level tool for designers and photographers. Its even better for those that need a little more than the entry level Bamboo tablet, but doesn’t need all bells and whistles that come with the more advanced models.

One of the issues I do have with Bamboo Capture, is the USB cord is too short. If your desktop is on the ground or a few feet away from the work area, the USB cord is to short. This means, you can’t use the tablet where you want it.

To remedy this, you can purchase a longer cable or get a USB hub setup where you need it. If these aren’t an option, or you simply hate cables like I do, you can always go wireless. For an additional $40 you can purchase the Wacom Wireless Accessory Kit that removes the wires from your tablet.

The kit comes with everything you need to make your tablet more mobile and easier to use. I haven’t purchased this kit and have plans on purchasing it. Once I do, I will review it.

You can purchase the Wacom Bamboo Capture from Staples for $99.99

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review on Evolutionary Designs.