i'm on a wacom intuos 3, and i luv it, wouldn't be without one again, one thing though is if you wish to replicate pencils and pens and such, then you are gonna have to spend some time making your own brushes in photoshop / painter.

if you have experience with traditional tools, then you will never quite feel at home with a wacom, because you just don't get to use your fingers the way you would traditionally, but a mix of a Wacom and Painter X is about as close to the real thing as you are gonna find.

it does take a while to get used to it though, but is definately a massive improvement over using a mouse.

and i am pleased to hear that ZBrush can use a wacom too, as i plan on getting Zbrush 3.1 soon. 'nother bonus.

so my advice is if you can afford one, get one.