Wacom has introduced a new line of pen tablets called Bamboo. The basic Bamboo is only $70, comes in black only and ships with no extra software. The Bamboo Fun starts at $99, but is available in two different sizes. It’s made in 4 different colors: Black, Silver, White and Bright Blue. The Fun model ships with Photoshop Elements 5, nik ColorEffects 2 GE, and Painter Essentials 3.

These pen tablets are aimed at digital photographers, but also at Windows Vista users. Apparently, Vista supports pen tablets for handwriting emails and some other functions. The Bamboos are also widescreen format to accommodate LCD panel users.

If you don’t have Photoshop Elements yet, get one of these pen tablets. You get the full version of PSE plus a few other software goodies. The pen tablet will make your life in digital editing software so much easier. For example, the Brush tool is pen aware and pen pressure controlled. It’s much more natural to use the pen instead of a mouse for this tool.

You’ll benefit from a pen tablet using other tools too. Selections are certainly much easier with a pen. Using the Eraser is more accurate and easier to control. The list goes on. I’ve been using a Graphire 4 pen tablet for over a year and I love it.

The Bamboo products are set to ship later this month. See more details at the Wacom website.