My Cintiq Experience.
(or how Aurea finally could get her hands on a Cintiq and the very expensive-nightmarish - worth-every penny experience)
So my Husband gave me a brand new Cintiq for my upcoming b-day. I was really excited about this because I believe most artist want to have a display where they can draw on. After researching for a while and testing chinese knock offs, my husband and I decided to go for a Cintiq (let me assure you that chinese tablets are good as well. Especially the Ugge brand. I recommend 2150 which I tested along with the 1910b and they are pretty good displays).
Here you can see my brand new cintiq. I was very excited. I’ve been a long time wacom user and I fully trusted the brand. However if I had to knit pick, I wasn’t so sure to spend a lot of money on a huge display. As you know Cintiq has displays of different sizes going from 13 inch to the 22 inch. For me, neither of those sizes were good at all. I am a very small person and wouldn’t like to have a huge tablet taking all of my space. When the 16 inch pro was released I was thrilled. At least for me, it’s the PERFECT size to draw on and above all, at an affordable price.
The feeling of drawing on the display is superb. I’ve used Cintiqs before but never for personal projects or for long periods of time. Although it does take a bit of time to get used to it (couple of days), it really improves your workflow and speed. I have to say I was very proficient with the Intous. Most of the few lustrations I did were drawing directly with the wacom so I had no issues with the hand-eye coordination. In any case there is a huge difference when you do it on the display. The only thing I would have to disagree with the Cintiq lovers is that it is definitely not like drawing on paper. I just wouldn’t change that for the world (however it is close, so there’s that ;).
Now, here are the cons for me of owning a Cintiq. There are few reviews like this on the internet (considering the display is fairly new) and I wanted to share my experience in case someone out there encounters the same problems I had. Spending a lot of money on a display is a huge deal and you wouldn’t want to end up with a useless device.
I have Mac, running Sierra OS (latest version). This is crucial since the Cintiq ran into some problems as the driver conflicted with the latest Sierra OS.
When I turned it on the first time there was a awful red tint on my display. Like so:
The tint was so bad I had to color correct it manually. The colors were never accurate. Especially the reds which looked orange (to my dismay) and the yellows with were like pink which in turn were the whites I kept on seeing all over the display. At first I though this problem was because the Cintiq needed to be color corrected (which I did and kept on working with a manually color corrected monitor), but this was a Sierra issue that I later would find out as I found other Sierra users had the same problem (keep on reading to find the solution to this annoying issue). As I color corrected the display I encountered yet another problem. Despite all my software was working correctly Photoshop started to act weird. Whenever I pressed F to go to full screen there was an annoying red stripe
It was only present when in full view whilst the Cintiq was the primary monitor. Later on I discovered it was a Sierra issue with second displays (keep on reading for solution).
Theeeeen, I find out that my Cintiq which had touch function enabled had a bug. Whenever I launched it, the touch function was detected on the mac screen (moving my finger on the cintiq, moved the cursor on the imac). I had to turn it on twice to get the touch function to work correctly on the display. Solution:
Red Stripe Photoshop First I solved the issue of the red stripe by upgrading to Photoshop CC. Wacom or adobe, or apple (I don’t know which) simply does not support older versions or photoshop when using the Cintiq as second display. Once I installed CC, the problem went away. It’s a hassle really. But I have TOC and cannot be working with a red stripe. It’s simply very annoying.
Another solution is simply to hold the OS upgrade. For me, taking this decision was already too late since my computer came with El Capitan. So there was no way I could hold anything at all. To all those out there who have Yosemite, do not upgrade. Some things will be messed up... badly messed up. Consider yourselves warned!
Red Tint
Well, after almost a month of using my brand new device I discovered that the red tint was NOT something that *had* to be there -___-. That actually some people (mac users) returned their devices considering them defective. I have to say I did cry like a little girl, incredibly frustrated. The display although affordable wasn’t at all cheap. I was heart broken having to return it because I was already using it a lot. Later on talking to several guys on line and signing into the European wacom Forum, I found out the culprit was the M**F Sierra OS and the Night Shift Function. What the night function does is to adjust your monitor light for late hours. And second displays translate that function in a weird red tint. I never had that function enabled so when I read about it I kept wondering why the Night shift Function was messing up my display. The tab had sort of a disclamer below the ticking box, assuring me that second displays are not affected (riiight). Before I did anything I restored my display to factory setting and the red tint was instantly there. Then I went to my Imac Settings/Displays/Night Shift.
what I did was, select and unselect it with the Cintiq on. I could see how the light adjusted on my Cintiq and the red tint was GONE. The colors were more vibrant and more accurate. Nothing like the ones I had set with my color corrected profile. Thankfully! With the color correction I did, I had lots of problems with reds. But now all the colors look good :D I am so happy. The only downfall to this solution is that you will have to do this EVERY time you start the computer /wakes from sleep mode. It is a very simple procedure yet, I have to add, annoying as hell!
As you can see the red tint is gone. It’s so shiny and pretty my little pomegranate *hugs it* (My husband name it pomegranate after the simpson episode of Das Bus). I still need to test it on another computer that has yosemite, but I haven’t heard or read anyone with old OS that have any problems with the Cintiq. This is clearly a driver issue and conflicts with the Sierra OS. I though I would leave this here in case anyone runs into these problems. I went crazy for a couple of days thinking I had spent a huge amount of money on something poorly constructed. I do hope Wacom really help us Sierra users to block the Night Shift function for good!
Despite all the bad things I experienced on this device I’d still recommend it to serious artists. It really made a difference for me. The design of the Cintiq is really pretty. I’ve heard people complaining that it does not come with express keys and that you have to buy them separately. For me this was not an issue and I don’t see what’s the problem of reaching out for the keyboard. The only thing I’m waiting for is to get a decent stand that wacom assured us would be released early this 2017 and which is still on hold. So far I would recommend this product. It is a shame that apple and wacom have difficulties with the drivers because this is a major deal breaker. I really though of returning the cintiq but in the end decided against it. I really like my Cintiq and I’m hoping the red tint issue will get solved with the driver update! In any case Sierra OS is really bad. I have a Macbook Pro which never had any problems, when I updated to sierra my cursor started to act erratically and jumpy. It turned out to be an interference with my wifi modem (???), an old modem that the very same Macbook had been connected on for three years with no problem at all. I solved the issue in the end, but my computer could no longer connect wirelessly to that modem. I had to connect it to the main router. Sierra does that to your computers and to your mental peace.
ETA April 2018:
In the end I had to return the device. Six months later the touch became faulty and the device flickered altering the colors. I noticed the colors didn’t match at all and purples on the cintiq were shown blue.
Wacom exchanged the 16” inch twice. Both were faulty.
I ended up with a 22hd model. Won’t recommend you buying the 16”. Huge dissapointment.
I hope this post helps people out there. In the meantime I leave you guys with a nice drawing of school boys :)
