I'm a relative newbie to Blender and I'm after a little advice.
I've worked in CAD for years with a 3-button mouse & keyboard, however as I explore Blender, I find that a pen type tool would be helpful too when creating textures and using things like grease pen etc.
I'm using Win 10 with Blender 2.79 and have USB 2 & USB 3 ports available. My monitor is 1920 x 1080 24" widescreen.
I'm looking at an initial budget of £50-£100 to try one out and, assuming I can master it and it benefits my workflow, I'd be happy to upgrade.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Trevor
Bit of a beginner myself and I have the small Wacom Intuos tablet, which will run you about £70. Not a particularly extensive model by any means, but it's a great starting tablet so you can get used to using one.
Anything that has "Wacom" label on it :D. Me myself using Wacom Bamboo One (A6). It's using a single usb port and stylus doesn't require battery.
I second all the opinions above. Wacom Intuos, pro or not, are really good starting material. Most important is that it has pressure sensitivity. Bonus if it's pen & touch (which has become a standard now).
FWIW, I use a Huion Q11K tablet, which has a large sized 11-inch input surface, pressure sensitivity (8192 levels) and a number of programmable buttons, and Bluetooth functionality, which is on sale at Amazon right now for <£70 equivalent, at least in the US store. It works perfectly for a beginner like me, the pen has a nice feel and is not heavy at all, the construction is solid, and working on the large surface just seems more comfortable and natural to my hand than drawing on a postcard-sized work area, which is what you have to get if you want a Wacom-branded device at the lowest price point Wacom offers.
One possible downside is that it does not come with per-application pen and button settings, but rather only allows you to set global hotkeys for the buttons. But, again, I've learned to use it the way it comes for Blender, and my 2D program (Krita) has its own stylus button-assignment settings menu. Another possible downside is that while it has pressure sensitivity, it lacks Wacom's tilt-sensitivity, although that is more of a 2D art feature.
When researching tablets, I noted that there were some complaints some time ago with getting the Q11K to work with some programs; but I have not encountered any of these problems myself. YMMV, but I have zero complaints with this equipment. I cannot say it beats Wacom's solid quality, but it's a negligible tradeoff for what I consider the advantage of a larger surface area IMO.