Sunday 4 April 2010

Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless

As a visual concept artist, sometimes it is important to have a portable setup for work within the field, and for continuing education of a artist via life studies and plein aire work.

Thus, the goal of the ultimate photoshop roadwarrior would be a blend of software/hardware accuracy, portability and availability for the modern digital artist.

Life of the Photoshop Roadwarrior

For many years, I have been a proponent of tabletPCs for this purpose, in particular I have found the Fujitsu Siemens tablet PCs (Windows XP & Vista OS) to have a great mixture of battery life , relative portability and sufficient performance for field work.

However, the drawbacks become more apparent in terms of weight, portability and raw computing firepower as our 3rd gen T4220 becomes dated. In addition, with the new raft of ultraportables/macbook pros available in the market, perhaps it is about time to review the life for the photoshop roadwarrior

In particular, perhaps the current gen of laptops and tabletPCs may have improved anti glare options. Nevertheless, one has to sometimes think outside the box and this is where the wireless Intuos 4 may be able to offer a complementary bridge towards folks with existing laptops, tabletPCs or ultraportables for a relatively modest price $399 USD (£340).



I4 Wireless: Pros
  • Improved accuracy
  • Improved Pen pressure support (2048 levels of pressure)
  • Ultra Lightweight (2.2 pounds/ 0.997kg)
  • Functions as a dual A5 Intuos 4 USB or wireless bluetooth mode
  • Intuos 4 - ambidextrous Expresskeys
Compared to existing wacom penabled digitizer technology, the wireless I4 has almost entirely the same technology and fidelity of the Intuos4 range, and thus this means being able to bring your daily desktop workflow into the field (if required), whilst remaining failry portable, ultralightweight (less than 1 kg!) and modestly priced.

One can argue, that with the wireless Intous4 - this can be a relatively worthy investment for the digital artist lasting all the way into your professional years for every kind of purpose, workflow and daily usage. In comparision, the main industry standard of the Intuos 4 A4 (desktop) is overly large and good for everyday heavy use but certainly is not somethign one would lug around for demos, meetings or usage out in the field/exposed to the raw elements.



NEXT: I4 WL: Setup >>

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