Cintiq tablet: Worth investing for?

[Tiger In A Tie]

Hey, everybody! I've got a few questions about Cintiq tablets.

I'm an art major in college. I want a career of illustrating children's books. Recently, I've been looking into a Cintiq tablet. My Intuos 3 has been very hardy and still works, but when I begin to advance towards a professional level, I want something that will help me work best as possible. I've seen the videos of it in use and read reviews, and I'm quite impressed.

So it's something I want to save up for; however, I'd like some opinions first.

1) They're fairly pricey. I'd like to buy the 12X, mainly because of the smaller size and lower price. But even though it would cost much more, should I save for a larger model? Right now I'm working on an Intuos3 6x8.
2) Are they responsive and well made? I want a high quality tablet and want to be sure this is one of them.
3) Is there a different brand of tablet I should look for? I'm a loyal Wacom user and due to past experience with Wacom products, I love their tablets and think the Cintiq will make me happy just like my Intuos3.
4) It'll be at least two years before I'll have the money to buy one (prolly more if I end up going to a 4-year college for my Bachelor's degree). Should I wait for newer models/better products?
5) Does anyone her have experience with them? Any first hand reviews of them would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, i hope that it's not too lengthy. |D; Thanks in advance for any feedback. c:

 

[Zenia]

I've never used one... and I don't want to. Not only are they really expensive, but I like the regular tablets where I don't have to look at my hand and it doesn't get in the way as I am drawing. I know a couple of people that use them (they are animators) and they say they love them.

 

[Tiger In A Tie]

I've never used one... and I don't want to. Not only are they really expensive, but I like the regular tablets where I don't have to look at my hand and it doesn't get in the way as I am drawing. I know a couple of people that use them (they are animators) and they say they love them.

See, that's the part that makes me interested though- that I do get to watch my hand as I draw. It feels much more natural to me because that's how I draw on paper as well. It's why I got my 6x8, so it would be a little closer to the size of a sheet of paper (and the rectangle shape) to be as much like traditional art as possible.

 

[Zydala]

I've heard that if you're going to buy one, you should buy the bigger one, because there aren't as many problems with jitter around the edges of the screen and the small ones heat up faster. No matter what though, they are definitely very nice machines and there's no question that they're great tablets.

I'd personally love one for the same reasons that you said Tiger - I would love the feedback of seeing my hand actually place down lines and such on a screen - but I'm a long ways off from buying one in my lifetime ahaha. :]

I'd totally wait until you actually need one. You can even start putting money aside so it doesn't hurt so much when you get it.

 

[Arshes Nei]

Don't get the smaller one. You're stuck with that screen space. If you're really serious about this get the 21 inch or larger. The 12 also has jitter towards the edges and gets hot. It's not portable, and definitely not a lap device. If you're gonna spend that money get a Samsung 7 slate or save up more and get the large cintiq.

The other thing is to go on ebay and get an older tablet pc for a few hundred and see if this is the thing you like doing, but I have friends that had a lot of complaints with the smaller cintiqs, and most really do recommend the larger one.

At least with a tablet you can map to a larger or smaller monitor. A Cintiq, you can't exactly enjoy a limited screen space and hope it gets larger.