mouse recommendations

[valmet13]

Making very subtle adjustments with the adjustmet brush requires very delicate control of the mouse.
Is there a relative consensus as to the best mouse. If so, does it work equally as well with other computer functions?
Does it have the equivalent of "back" and "forward buttons and scrolling wheel?

Sometimes, when I wish to attribute a photo, the icons do not appear under the photo and I have to click on a "done" button on the lower right under the photo.
Is there a way to keep the attribute icons under the photo?

What does "syncronize folder" mean?
Is there a "safe" way to save?

thanks
Berle

 

[clee01l]

I have not found any mice to be granular enough to fine tune the Develop adjustment sliders. And in particular precise cropping of images is nearly impossible with a mouse. As I have moved to a larger screen (Currently 2560X1440px) I have found the better fine control possible.
Perhaps the most useful (for Windows) has been the Bamboo Touch. Its shortcoming is that if fails dismally when working with a dual screen since the complete desktop surface is mapped onto the small ~4"X5" touchpad.

For me the most versatility has been achieved since I migrated to OSX and an iMac. Both the multi gestures of the Apple Trackpad and the Magic Mouse far surpass anything I ever experienced using the many different mice, touchpads etc. that have been developed for Windows.

 

[donoreo]

I use a microsoft mouse on my Mac I want a tablet though, I agree that it is hard to fine tune with a mouse. A guy I used to work with spent $150 on a "gaming" mouse for gaming. He said it was for the fine control.

 

[happycranker]

I have twin screens and use a medium size Wacom tablet for both LR and PS with no problems and get all the control I need. I have adjusted my work flow so that I use the pen with my right hand and still use, if required the mouse with my left. With my old version of the Wacom tablet, right clicking is not that easy for me, but the new ones have no problem and have hot keys built into the tablet as well. http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Intuos.aspx

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Berle, just to clarify, fine adjustments on the SLIDERS or fine adjustments with BRUSH strokes? For brush strokes, I'd highly recommend a Wacom pen. For fine adjustments on the sliders, I'd tend to float over the slider and use the up/down keys on the keyboard for fine adjustments.

 

[erro]

For better mouse control of the sliders, you can press the shift-key while dragging. That will make the sliders move less, so you can move the mouse more.

 

[valmet13]

Thanks. Pressing the shift key gives me more precise control of the mouse.

 

[valmet13]

The slider tip seems to work well. I'll have to investigate the Wacom pen.
thanks for the help.
Berle

 

[donoreo]

I have twin screens and use a medium size Wacom tablet for both LR and PS with no problems and get all the control I need. I have adjusted my work flow so that I use the pen with my right hand and still use, if required the mouse with my left. With my old version of the Wacom tablet, right clicking is not that easy for me, but the new ones have no problem and have hot keys built into the tablet as well. http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Intuos.aspx

That is not a bad idea. I am left handed, so the pen would be in my left. I occasionally switch which side I use the mouse on, but have not for a while.

 

[Paul Treacher]

For sliders you can just click on the value and enter a specific value with keyboard, so if you find using mouse tends to jump by say 10 and is too much you can try enter a figure somewhere between, say 5.

Also if you have a big screen you can make the right hand panel wider thus giving better mouse control - you will of course reduce your image size but could hide the left hand panel to make up for it:

 

[Denis Pagé]

I agree with you Cletus. But did you know that the Magic Trackpad from Apple is working very nice with Windows? You just have to download the drivers from Apple...

 

[kbfoot]

The tablets are probably the "pro" way to go, but I have no direct experience with them. I can recommend the large-ball 'trackball' type mouse; I currently have a trackball called the Kensington Expert Mouse. The Apple Magic Trackpad may also be worth investigation. The conventional roll-around type mice are non-starters for me; I consider them to be ergonomically inelegant

 

[valmet13]

I've heard of the Kensington trackballs. Specifically, what advantages do they provide compared to a typical mouse? Do they give you finer control of the sliders? More flexible control of the adjustment brush?
Are there any disadvantages when using non-graphic software such as Word & Excel, or any other typical applications, such as fishing with Google? Or any other disadvantages you can think of?
thanks
Berle

 

[missingelement]

All of or work stations here use the Logitech MX mouse. We use the One touch button at the top of the mouse for cropping (R), The two side buttons as copy and paste, the thumb wheel is used for the white balance tool.

Our workflow is based upon the hovering technique Victoria Mentioned, we hover over each adjustment and use the Up/Down arrow keys to modify each slider with Shift/Alt keys as the modifiers for Bigger/Smaller jumps.

 

[kbfoot]

I've heard of the Kensington trackballs. Specifically, what advantages do they provide compared to a typical mouse? Do they give you finer control of the sliders? More flexible control of the adjustment brush?
Are there any disadvantages when using non-graphic software such as Word & Excel, or any other typical applications, such as fishing with Google? Or any other disadvantages you can think of?
thanks
Berle

I can't testify that the trackball type mouse is "better" or "more responsive" than a conventional roll-a-round mouse, since I so quickly abandoned the conventional mouse way back when that I never had enough experience with it...I just knew that I didn't like it. It didn't make ergonomic sense to use my entire upper and lower arm for a movement of a couple of millimeters when it could be done by only one finger on a smoothly rotating 2" diameter ball. Maybe you just have to try one, but buy it from a store that has a satisfaction guarantee/e-z return policy..

 

[Brad Snyder]

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, trackballs were basically made out of billiard balls. At one time I had an ancient Atari trackball on the floor with an oversized push button alongside, that I could operate with my bare right foot. No need to remove my hands from the keyboard in word processing applications.

During one particular project, I became halfway adept with it, but the practical ergonomics of the thing were horrible. (It really needed to be installed in the floor, rather than in a dictionary sized box on the floor).

I find myself just the opposite of Keith, I've never found a finger/hand trackball I was comfortable with. I can get the hang of cursor motion, but click and drags, etc. elude me. Probably just a matter of commitment and practice.

Let's call this my 1.5 cents worth, not worth the whole 2 pennies.

 

[Conanian]

I have a mouse that has a scroll wheel in the middle of both left and right buttons, marvellous inventions

 

[willdoak]

I use a Kingston Expert Mouse. I got on on the suggestion of Richard Lynch in his Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements. He said you could interrupt your work without moving the pointer. I've used it so much that I can now edit text with it, which I never expected.

Thanks for the tip about holding down the shift key. I misread it at first and held down the alt key. That produced weird results -- screen would white or black out and show what I presume are blown out portions. Can anybody clarify this for me? Is it useful for anything?

Cheers,

Will

 

[Victoria Bampton]

It's very useful Will! It allows you to check which areas will clip the shadows or highlights, just like pressing the J key or floating over the triangles in the top corners of the histogram.