I had an old 12"x12" Wacom ArtZII (Digitizer II) that got damaged before I really had a chance to play with it. It was the Mac version with the DIN serial port but after much searching I was able to find a female-DIN to male DB9 adapter for using it on an SGI (which I never got around to) and a Kingston serial to USB adapter to use it on newer Macs without serial ports. I did download a free program (Tablet Magic I think) that let me use it on my iMac in 10.5 and I was able to play around with it a bit.
I still have the power supply, serial cable, etc so I could pick up another large tablet from the same series on ebay pretty cheaply especially if the auction was only for the tablet.
1. I'm up to 10.8 on my Mac Pro now. Is there still a way to use these old serial tablets reliably on a modern Mac?
2. The model I had is many generations behind what's currently available. I'm not spending a several hundred dollars to get a new tablet but I might spend $100-200 on a decently-sized model from a generation or two back if I can find one. Not being anywhere near a serious artist and just wanting something to play around with, would I really notice a difference between the number of sensitivity levels, etc on an old old tablet and a newer one?
3. You can get a huge, older tablet for the price of a newer, much smaller one. Which would you prefer to have, a larger work area or the benefits of newer tech?
4. Is there a reason I'm still not seeing tablets in a 16:9 format? I can understand the older ones being 4:3 from when most monitors were that aspect ratio, though my ArtZII was 1:1.
Of course if I get responses that favor an older serial or ADB tablet that's a reason to keep and old Mac around and up and running!
I still have the power supply, serial cable, etc so I could pick up another large tablet from the same series on ebay pretty cheaply especially if the auction was only for the tablet.
1. I'm up to 10.8 on my Mac Pro now. Is there still a way to use these old serial tablets reliably on a modern Mac?
2. The model I had is many generations behind what's currently available. I'm not spending a several hundred dollars to get a new tablet but I might spend $100-200 on a decently-sized model from a generation or two back if I can find one. Not being anywhere near a serious artist and just wanting something to play around with, would I really notice a difference between the number of sensitivity levels, etc on an old old tablet and a newer one?
3. You can get a huge, older tablet for the price of a newer, much smaller one. Which would you prefer to have, a larger work area or the benefits of newer tech?
4. Is there a reason I'm still not seeing tablets in a 16:9 format? I can understand the older ones being 4:3 from when most monitors were that aspect ratio, though my ArtZII was 1:1.
Of course if I get responses that favor an older serial or ADB tablet that's a reason to keep and old Mac around and up and running!
