Wacom pen and touch CTH-470

I finally got a drawing tablet! Yey!

After a long battle with my mind as to what brand to choose and what model to buy, I finally settled with a Wacom Bamboo.

Why I chose this tablet:
First off, it's established. Wacom, by far is the most reliable brand when it comes to graphic tablets.
I actually wanted to give Genius a try, given that its price is more affordable. Imagine you can buy two genius worth of tablets, with the price of one wacom. (The level entry, that is.)

What's inside?

This is it! The tablet, pen with eraser,the drivers, and usb cable 4 extra nibs and a nib remover.

The Tablet and Pen
This is a pen and touch tablet, so basically, you can also use this as an alternative to mouse, while you are drawing.

See those white marks? That's the margin for the active area. You can only draw within those marks. The space within these marks represent exactly your monitor. When I first used it, it was confusing, but you'll get used to it.

This tablet has four hot keys. You can also adjust them. How I love the brilliant idea of the creases in those hot keys!

The pen has a built-in eraser, and also has two shortcut keys within the pen's body. You can adjust them too. Here's what I just noticed though, the luster of the eraser's body gets scratched as you erase it. So for me, I actually opted not to use it. Instead, I assigned the eraser to one of the shortcut keys. [I just don't want my pen to look old and scratched. :P  ]

Did I mention that this tablet is wifi ready? There's an allotted compartment for wifi and battery, it's sold separately though.

Oh la la!
Wacom bamboo eraser and pressure sensitivity doesn't work
The first time I used the eraser, it was a horror that the eraser not working. I thought it was supposed to be by default, but it doesn't work in SAI or Adobe photoshop.

Wacom pen and touch is made to be pressure sensitive. It's the function that makes a line thicker or thinner depending on how much pressure you apply to the tablet using the pen. It should function by default.

The first time I tried my pen, I totally forgot about the pressure thing. The next time I tried it, again, it's not working, and I was in panicky mode again.

The solution for the drawing tablet's pressure sensitivity  and eraser to work: pressing the CTRL,ALT,SHIFT altogether while the application is starting. It will reset your application's settings. It should make the eraser and pressure sensitivity work. If not, then you have another problem.

FREE SAI DOWNLOAD
Easy paint tool SAI is just like Adobe Photoshop, but as the name says, it's easy. With layman's terms and uncluttered interface, it's a very helpful tools for novice, and professionals too.

Now, most of the people who use graphic tablets use this program. So, my dilemma was where to download SAI free? (Sorry I don't have lots of bucks to shell out for the original:[ ) Anyway, I found it at last. If you just keep on looking, you'll eventually find something.

So I'm sharing this very helpful site I found.
Be sure to check the 'description'. ;)

I have tried it and it worked for me. I hope it will for you too.