Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid

[MissionMan]

Saw this and I'm surprised i haven't seen it before

http://buywacom.com.au/cintiq-companion-hybrid-32gb.html

Rediculously expensive but if you buy an iPad and a Cintiq individually, it's probably costing you the same anyway.

Has anyone used the Cintiq's for photography and photoshop? What is it like working with a tablet screen instead of a standard wacom pen?

[arthurking83]

At last years Photo Show, I had a play with their tablet device which was hard wired(USB) to the PC .. looks very similar other than what I think this thing does.

The tablet(which I think was also called cintiq) was a pen tablet device which displays an image of your files on the tablet as well as the PC screen.
Similar too their Cintiq 22HD product, but without the wireless capability.
I remember the device was quite addictive and very intuitive to use. (my main problem was using CS it was working through .. but apart from that, editing was as easy as you could imagine.
ie. better than the traditional mouse setup.

I have a tablet(Bamboo) to help with editing and when I do use it, it works well and usually less tiring(but in some instances, it's more of a hindrance)

This device seem to be a setup in the same manner of their older tablet systems, using the android system in the background over a wireless connection to edit images on a PC or Mac .. and possibly as a standalone product.

I can't see anywhere that it connects to an iPad tho.
It looks to be more of a standalone Android device with really nice image editing ability .. or tethered to a PC/Mac, for assistance in editing via your preferred PP software.

Whether it's worth the money is a personal question.

If you haven't ever used a tablet for editing .. it really is a more natural way to edit in many situations(but not all). I dare say for CS/LR tho it's probably more helpful.
You can get a really cheap(I got mine for less than $50 as a fun thing for the kids! :D) bamboo type device to see if tablet editing is for you.
if you know the CaptureNX2 workflow, it's sometimes easier just to use the mouse instead(referring back to my hindrance comment above).

I haven't actually used these devices of course .. they look quite new, and the Melb Photo Show was only mid last year .. so I'm assuming this thing is very new in terms of availability to the public.

If you're looking for an Android based tablet(can justify the expense) .. and you use PS/CS/LR/CC for your editing, I think you'd probably enjoy the user experience.

[I @ M]

Rediculously expensive

A very subjective comment I feel.

If it performs brilliantly and saves the person who is using it $$$ in terms of time allowing them to edit work and present it better and faster the $$$ equation flies out the window.

Maybe it is a little exe for a hobbyist but if it works well then it is money well spent for those who need it.

[MissionMan]

True on the subjective comment. I just meant in comparison to a normal wacom tablet which goes for a couple of hundred bucks.

I had a look at it at one of the local mac stores on the way home. It is nice, but monstrous. It's pretty close to a 15" macbook pro in size and thickness so the option of using it as a tablet would be pretty horrible as it's just too heavy for non-photo editing tablet use if you compare it to the current range of iPad, Surface, Android etc. I'm not saying its bad, just to big for my mobile purposes.

At this point, it might make more sense to use the wacom 13" tablet. I have started using an old Wacom bamboo which I am enjoying.