Hi.
I`m going to buy a tablet very soon.
what size do you use most?
6" x 8" Intuos3 (the dimension is the drawing surface. The tablet is more like 10x12".) This is a truly awesome tablet, but I believe the new Graphires are 95-99% as good, depending on your end-use (sketching vs painting vs 3D sculpt). Now I’m wondering if one of the special WACOM pens for the Intuos might have some special benefit for ZBrush users.
This is large enough for almost anything. The bigger tablets wouldn’t fit in my workspace, and would be harder to travel with. Arguably, the next smaller size is perfectly fine, but it may cramp some people’s drawing styles if you are more of a sketcher that likes to draw with long strokes. For 3D sculpting and painting, the smaller sizes should be fine, IMO.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider anything but WACOM, if there is anything else.
BTW, does anyone know if the Logitech/3DConnexion Space Navigator/Space Traveler 3D navigation devices work with ZBrush?
Hi. I use a 9 x 12 (actual footprint is about 17 x 12 or so) Wacom Intuos 3 and I’m absolutely in love with it. Works like a dream.
I use a 8x6 Wacom Graphire, and I love it. I have worked with 12x12 in the past and found that I only activated an 8x6 area.
So I would say, don’t think that the biggest is the best. Think about hof far you really want to move your hand when your working.
I use exactly the same type as Elixir (Classic XL, being more specific). And he’s right, I doubt anything bigger would really suit me. Unless you use two screens.
The Intuos models are better, I believe, but also more expensive. Your choice. 
This subject has been covered at length, and you could turn up a wealth of additional information with some searching. I will say that the size of the tablet varies with what you want to do with it.
For photomanip, utility scultping in Zbrush, some painting, OS navigation, the smallest tablets and graphires are great. Moving up to the 6x8 intuous makes it easier to do more detailed painting, rough sketching and get higher frequency details in ZB sculpting. Fine “Drawing” really doesnt come alive till you hit the “9x12” range…I used to think my 6x8 tablet was good for drawing till I used the larger tablet and really got good stroke detail…the difference is night and day, and of course only benefits sculpting and painting as well. Much larger tablets than that are usually for users with specialized needs, as the desk area larger tablets occupy is considerable…the 9x12 is bad enough.
we all use intuos3 A5 at work (and i have it as well at home)
very good tablet …
Ditto on the Graphire 4. I have the 6x8 and it seems to suit my needs whenever I use it. I should really start using it for ZBrush more… I think I picked it up for a decent price, around $170 on Amazon.com.
If you’re in the market for one, fastfinger, and money is no object, go for one of those Cintiq tablet monitors. Ahhh, how awesome it would be to sculpt my model right on my monitor. Ahhh, it sounds like the laziest alternative to using actual clay.:lol:
Intuos 3 9x12