I've finally had enough of cranky mice and ancient art packages, so I'm looking at buying a Wacom and either Photoshop 7 or Painter 8. No way can I afford a new Wacom so I'm bidding on ebay ATM for an A5 version. Same with Photoshop, although I may be able to buy Painter 8 new as it's cheaper than 7. So a question... Of the people that use Wacoms / tablets, do you really recommend them? Are they much easier to use than a mouse, and if so, do you need an A4 or will an A5 do the trick? I probably can't afford even a second-hand A4, but there's no point getting an A5 if it's too small. And does anyone use Painter? The best digital stuff I've seen was done with Painter (check out Michael Shillett on digitalart - holy crap!) but it's supposed to be difficult to use (or rather v7 was, apparently v8 is incredible). Photoshop gets 5 stars on every review, but is it really that good for painterly art - what I'm interested in - or is it most good for image editing? I must say, I have Adobe Illustrator 10 and it's near impossible to use and really buggy, so I'm no fan of Adobe! So any advice would be appreciated. And pretty fast, 'cos the bidding expires soon!! ;)