Wacom Pro Pen 3D gets a new button on its belly

You don't have to use it just for 3D, though.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice

I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.

Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories

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Lori Grunin

Nov. 7, 2017 12:07 a.m. PT

wacom-pro-pen-3d — Wacom updates its latest stylus with a slightly sleeker design and a new button.
Sarah Tew/CNET

Wacom's Intuos Pen Pro 3D adds some tweaks to the design and capabilities of the original that should increase its usability for folks who need additiional controls at their stylus-gripping fingertips. Designed to work with products incorporating the company's latest generation of 8,096-level-sensitivity EMR technology -- this year's Intuos Pro, Cintiq Pro and MobileStudio Pro -- the stylus includes an extra button and eliminates the eraser button at the top.

It's also marginally thinner and feels a little lighter, and the button grouping is a bit closer to the nib then before. All of these changes add up to a slightly different balance and operational feel than the standard Pro Pen 2.

The default settings for the third button control rotation and tumbling (a specific camera movement in Autodesk applications like Maya), but you can program it the same was as the other buttons for use in non-3D applications.

Wacom's selling it for $100 (£90, likely about AU$150); that's roughly $10 (£10, probably AU$20) more than the standard Pro Pen 2. But you can find the latter for about 15 percent less and I suspect the same will be true of the Pro Pen 3D. It's available now.