Read the online version at http://www.cathayphoto.com.sg/viewfinder/read/2007,12,14

From prehistoric times, man has used stick-shaped devices to record their thoughts, observations and visions. Reeds, quills, nibs, pencils, pens, brushes, crayons, pastels and a slew of other media have been and are being used to record, to communicate and create art because working with a pen or brush is the most natural way.

With the advent of the computer, mainly due to the constraints of then-available technology, we had to learn to use a mouse instead to write, draw and paint and many have found its imprecision and lack of feel highly unsatisfying or even downright frustrating. Moreover, “mousing” makes us use our arms and hands in an unnatural way leading to an ever-increasing rate of RSI (repetitive stress injury).

Pen-enabled tablets that use a stylus have been around for quite a while, but initially, because of cost, their use was confined mainly to professional artists, designers and photographers while in the meantime, a whole new generation grew up using the mouse which to them has sadly become a normal way of working.

Well, things have changed now, for with Wacom’s recently introduced Bamboo Fun, we all can benefit from an affordable advanced input device for drawing, painting, sketching and writing as well as retouching photographs on a computer. Bamboo Fun offers an intuitive way of working digitally with creative software. With its advanced pressure-sensitive resolution, it’s very easy to use, making editing digital images like retouching imperfections and removal of red-eye quick and precise. Sketching, drawing and painting is much more satisfying as the stylus is pressure-sensitive so that stroke width and thickness varies with the pressure applied, as opposed to the totally dead feel of a mouse.

Bamboo Fun also features intelligent handwriting recognition found in current operating systems like Microsoft Windows Vista or Mac OS. You can use it to add personal touches such as notes in documents or signatures at the end of letters and emails.

Many useful features make Bamboo Fun an absolute delight to work with. The ergonomically-shaped and well-balanced pen is cordless and needs no battery, so you simply pick it up and use it as you would any pen or brush. The tablet has four programmable ExpressKeys that you can assign to frequently-used functions and the Touch Ring makes zooming and scrolling really easy. Using Bamboo Fun does not require you to give up the mouse completely as it also comes with a precision wireless mouse for those rare times when you feel a mouse would better serve your needs.

Bamboo Fun is available in two sizes: small and medium. The small tablet is 210 x 194 x 11 mm with an active area of 148 x 92 mm while the medium is 280 x 235 x 11 mm with an active area of 217 x 135 mm.

To add icing to what is already a scrumptious cake, some very desirable software is also bundled. Both the small and medium tablets come with Corel Painter Essentials – a simple-to-use and powerful painting application. In addition, the medium tablets also come with Adobe Photoshop Elements and the small tablet gets Ulead PhotoImpact 12 SE.