Monday, October 12, 2009

Axiotron Studio Pen

I've been waiting for this product since I got my Modbook in 2008. Now my wait is over.

The stock stylus that comes with the Modbook certainly does the job. But anyone who's drawn using any of the Wacom Cintiq styluses knows how much more ergonomic and comfortable they are. Unfortunately the aforementioned styluses don't work on the Modbook due to a system incompatibility.

Thankfully the good people of Axiotron have followed through on their promise of offering more precise and better performing tools to support the Modbook.

Today I got my STUDIO PEN in the mail and tonight I got the chance to finally try it out. From the get go it is marvelous tool. If fits perfectly on your hand and feels exactly like the Wacom Cintiq stylus. The kit comes with extra pen nibs ( including those sought after graphite nibs), extra clicker and rubber grip. So one can really feel good about putting the pen through some constant, real world use.

Compared to the stock stylus, the Studio Pen is more sensitive and gives really subtle feedback. The graphite nib responds smoothly to the digitizer and sleek, ergonomic grip feels natural and intuitive. The only drawback is that the pen won't fit the cleverly designed pen garage on the bottom of the Modbook. But this is a small price to pay. The upgrade in quality is worth the price and I tend to carry accessories in my gig bag anyway.

So if you are an owner of a Modbook, it would behoove you to give the Studio Pen a try.







8 comments:

Steve Curcuru said...

That's great news - I tried the Modbook a while back and the stylus was one of my obstacles to purchase.

andrew said...

In what way is it more sensistive? Doesn't it have the same 512 levels of pressure as the stock stylus?

Louie del Carmen said...

Sensitivity is derived from the digitizer and not the pen. I should have picked my words a little more careful. Basically the Studio Pen has more feedback than the stock pen by way of construction and responds to the sensitivity of the digitizer more. In other words, on lighter pressure the Studio Pen can sense more subtle strokes.

But to clarify, the Modbook caps at 512 levels of pressure regardless of what pen you use.

JP said...

Interesting- I'm still not sold on cintiqs- though we use them at aardman- mostly because of the 'hovering above the surface' feeling that the glass thickness gives me. be interesting toknow if modbooks are better in this respect. Also- kudos for use of the word 'behoove'.

Smackmonkey said...

It looks like many of the suggestions offered on the Axiotron site were ignored such as more side buttons and a more accurate tapered eraser. How about rotation? It would do Axiotron well to listen a little more to their user's input. I'll probably still buy it, though.

JP - The parallax issue does take a bit of getting used after years of perfect pencil-point-to-paper accuracy to but it's not an insurmountable obstacle. After using a Modbook for more than a year I find that I rarely pick up a pen or pencil anymore. You'll use the eraser and "undo" fairly often in the beginning but less and less as you acclimate to drawing on a screen.

My girlfriend had her hair done at the salon the other day. They behooved it.

Louie del Carmen said...

Appreciate the comments JP and Smackmonkey... It really behooves me to use the word behoove more often.

Steve Curcuru said...

Tried the Modbook again today and was psyched to try the Studio Pen this time - this was at mac Hollywood on sunset blvd in LA for anyone who's interested.
I'm happy to say the Studio Pen felt Awesome- even better than the wacom pens IMHO.
Now I'm closer to purchase... Still not sure if it beats my current Macbook pro 17" + Cintiq 12wx combo - I've grown attached to dual screens. The Modbook is def. Lighter though - my back will probably thank me later!

Unknown said...

Posts like this will teach me to take a long weekend offline, and off of the newsreader.

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