May be this Wacom worth to wait...

I agree that wacom is easy to have a tumultuous relationship with. In all honesty I've never owned any of their products new. And only recently they are becoming more affordable with the 13hd. But when it comes down to it, they are the most dependable and top dog as far as digital art goes. Personally I just like the technology they lend to third party hardware makers, ie, samsung note line, etc.. I tried n-trig a while back thinking I was going to be smart and go the cheaper route, that was a God Damn nightmare.

 

That's a big problem for this product if our pricing pessimism turns out to be right. It's not an ideal Cintiq device at 13". Buying a 13" Cintiq is a compromise, no two ways about it. We want LARGE drawing area, not small. We put up with small for sake of portability, but not if it's the only Cintiq we will end up with.

No matter what the price, this is a compromise product in that it's too small for a Cintiq, and it's too large to be a portable sketch pad. Worst of both worlds.

If I didn't have any pen display hardware, even if this comes out at $2000, it's a much smarter buy for me to get a used 21UX plus say, a Baytrail Penabled Windows 8.1 slate for the same money. No compromise at either large pen display and portable digital sketching pad with long battery life.

Also, if this device is the only one you can afford, do you really want your only pen display to be mobile? Get it stolen? Dropped and broken? This one device gets out of commission and it's no more work until you get a replacement. A horrible set up.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking, Shog. A 21UX or any of the larger surface area Cintiqs are going to last a long time. Not a bad investment when you can always replace/upgrade the computer and keep the tablet. The mobile aspect of this device demands it be (relatively) affordable by it's nature.

 

My comics aren't drawn well enough for me to feel comfortable putting down the artist's drawing ability too much, but they should have got an artist whose drawings didn't look so stiff they could conceivably have been drawn using a mouse. I second your "boss's nephew" theory.

 

Optimist inside me would be glad to see hardware buttons on one side of the Tablet but thinks 13.3 inch screen in body as big as rMPB 15 is not the definition of mobile. He thinks he could already use double-sided tape to glue mac mini to the Cintiq 13HD and save some money. He also think that tablet should not cost more than Cintiq 13 plus macbook air in decent configuration.

Pessimist inside me afraid that Wacom thinks creative crowd will buy whatever they throw to us no matter the price.

 

I just have to say this: all the complaining here is getting a little ridiculous.

We seem to be finally getting what most of us wanted. And now the problem is what - it's too expensive? Well what did you expect? Its a nitche product for a nitche market.

Had they released a lamer version, you'd all complain as much. Had they released nothing you'd complain. Shoot, even about the android thing you complain. It will most likely let you paint wirelessly using your computer (if you have a recent geforce card - courtesy of nvidia tegra android chipset)! Wireless Cintiq that doubles as an android tablet? Sounds pretty great to me.

Lets just be happy this is happening at all. If nothing else, this is (finally!) a step in the right direction that may just pave the way to what we want. I, for one, am giddy based on just that fact alone.

 

This is a good point. It is a step in the right direction.

(I'm still going to complain if I can't afford this one though.)

 

I can be extremely forgiving of, and even enthusiastic about pretty much any level of comics craft so long as it achieves its objectives. Effective communication is the most important thing for me.

My primary frustration was that Wacom picked an artist who is weak on technical drawing (for a computer product!), and what little other communication there is, is face-palm dumb.

When professionals are looking for details on potential hardware decisions which are going to be very expensive, it's kind of insulting to have to wade through this kind of nonsense. Wacom is a Japanese company, for goodness sake! Virtually any low-wage manga artist could do a better job, whereas this reminds me of a McDonnald's paper place mat coloring exercise.

I dunno. Maybe I'm over-reacting, but I figure if they're going to present their art tools the same way you sell toys and sugar-coated breakfast cereals, then they shouldn't price them like electron microscopes.

 

I agree for the most part..however....while a step in the right direction, the Sales/Success of it....or lack of sales could take things in the wrong direction. Keep in mind, if the Windows version hits in the $2000-$4000 range.....the market is just going to be for rich artists who can afford it. All the artists who are making do with Bamboos, and Intuos Tablets would be unable to afford it.

Also...a single artist purchasing a Cintiq doesn't exactly matter to Wacom...at least not in the same way that Companies, Art Schools, Studios, etc; who tend to purchase Cintiqs in 10+ bulk orders matter. That's where Wacoms bread really gets buttered.

The Mobile tablet because of its mobility could deterrent sales. More so with schools since a mobile Tablet schlepped around Campus would be much easier to steal over a Cintiq in a locked Art Studio/computer lab, and if you're not going to purchase it because of its mobility, why not just get the regular 13HD Cintiqs that would be cheaper?

Another Sales deterrent is the lack of an OSX option. If a Company or Design Studio only has Macs and Mac Software...outside of using it as a Cintiq, the Mobile Tablet will more or less be useless unless they were to repurchase all their software for PC. Plunking down the chump change for Manga Studio or Artrage is easy enough....for but Adobe Creative Suite, or additional Creative cloud accounts, Maya...etc...a whole different can of worms. The price offset wouldn't justify the purchase. Then it would broil down to why not just get the regular cheaper Cintiq, since that's all you would use the Mobile Tablet as.

 

Wacom is a Japanese Company....but Wacom Japan is not putting out the comic...Wacom Europe is. Wacom Japan may have had to give it the OK, but the Comic was mostly commissioned by Wacom Europe since that's the only maket region using it.