What's a good mouse to use with Designer?

[GarryP]

(This is a little bit off-topic - but still relevant - so I didn't know which area to put it in.)

I'm looking to upgrade some of my accessories and am thinking of buying a LOGITECH G402 Hyperion Fury mouse.
https://www.logitechg.com/en-gb/product/g402-hyperion-fury-fps-gaming-mouse
It's got a decent amount of programmable buttons and DPI switching which I thought might come in handy in certain situations but I was wondering if anyone has used one with AD and how they got on with it. Does it work well with AD? And what's it like to use in general? Also, can you tilt the mouse wheel left and right (so I can use that for a pan function)?

Or, has anyone used the LOGITECH G502 Proteus Spectrum with AD and do they work well together?
https://www.logitechg.com/en-gb/product/g502-proteus-spectrum-rgb-gaming-mouse
It looks a bit too fancy but if it's so much better than everything else then it could be an option.

Or, does anyone have any better mouse suggestions? (It has to be a "normal" mouse for me, no trackballs or weird stuff, but wired or wireless is irrelevant. And I'm on WIndows, it doesn't need to be Mac compatible.)

Basically I want to buy a mouse that's good for what I need for the next couple of years at least, so I would like to make a good choice.

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, GarryP said:

It has to be a "normal" mouse for me, no trackballs or weird stuff

Trackballs aren’t “weird stuff”, Garry, they’re great! They only need enough room to set them down somewhere, and the fingertip control allows for much more precise movement than you could ever reasonably expect from a mouse.

[GarryP]

Well, yeah, okay, trackballs aren't weird, it's just that I don't think I could get used to using one.
I don't think I would have the necessary manual dexterity in my aged digits.
I'm just used to using a mouse and paying £50+ for an experiment isn't my thing.
I also thought about getting one of those mice that you tilt/nudge rather than move around, but I think that would be a step too far also.
(I've had a graphics tablet for a few years but still can't properly get to grips with it. I can use a pen and paper just fine but a graphics tablet just makes my brain short-circuit somehow. Best if I stick with what I know.)
Anyway, whatever I pick has to be good for more general use too so I need to be comfortable using it in all situations.

[PaulEC]

Purely a personal opinion, but I've tried a trackball and couldn't get used to it.

I use a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic mouse, both at home and work, and find that it's the best I've ever used for comfort and accuracy. 

[toltec]

I can't stand trackballs either.

50 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic

Actually, that does look interesting. It even has a scoop 

I might buy one 

[GarryP]

Thanks @PaulEC
The Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic mouse looks interesting but it looks a bit "feature-poor" for the price.
I was hoping to get something that had programmable buttons. E.g. Set one of them to be a space bar so I could use it to pan/scroll without needing to use the mouse wheel or scroll bars or keyboard.
The DPI switching of the Logitechs is also an interesting feature that I thought might be useful for quickly changing the sensitivity for detail work.
Anyway, I'll certainly keep the Microsoft mouse in mind and see what else comes up.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

Well, yeah, okay, trackballs aren't weird, it's just that I don't think I could get used to using one.
I don't think I would have the necessary manual dexterity in my aged digits.

FWIW, I am on the far side of 70 years old. I use a Kensington "Expert Mouse" trackball. It is not cheap but it is built like a tank, offers extremely high precision compared to a conventional mouse, has 4 buttons that can be programed on a per app or global basis (including pointer speed & acceleration), & a scroll ring that makes it super easy using just one hand to zoom in & out of the workspace at the same time that the pointer is being used to perform some operation.

It might take some experimentation to find the settings one is most comfortable with, but aged digits should not be a problem.

[GarryP]

@R C-R That Kensington looks interesting - especially the scroll ring - but I'm not sure it would be the one for me.
If I could borrow a trackball for a week and see how it went then I might be tempted to buy one if all went well.
However, I don't want to spend money on something that might end up just sitting in a drawer. I could get a really cheap trackball but if it's horrible to use then that would probably put me off trying a really good one in the future.
I played around with a Logitech MX Ergo - https://www.techradar.com/reviews/logitech-mx-ergo-wireless-trackball-mouse - in PC World (a UK electrical store) for a minute or so but there's only so much you can do in a store before the sales staff start pointing at you and whispering.
It would be really great if I could find something other than a normal mouse that would fit my needs entirely but I don't want to have to build up a collection of "experiments" at the bottom of a drawer in the meantime.

[R C-R]

I do understand about not wanting to invest in something you are not sure about. For the Kensington, you might be able to buy it from a store with a good, no strings attached, money back return policy.

Edit: if you do try out the Kensington & like it, it should last approximately forever. Mine is pushing 10 years old & shows zero signs of wear.

[Mithferion]

And here I am, I believe, the only guy using a simple Logitec M100 mouse.

Best regards!

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

And here I am, I believe, the only guy using a simple Logitec M100 mouse.

 Logitech makes good stuff, so if the M100 suits your needs, all the better for you that it is very inexpensive.

My wife does not do any graphics work but even for simple stuff she disliked the Apple Magic Mouse 2 that came with her iMac so much that I got her a Logitech M535, mostly because I thought some of its bells & whistles like the tilt wheel would be good to have. I don't think she ever uses any of them, so I could have saved some money if I had gone with the 'Plain Jane' M100 instead.

Live & learn, I guess.

[Mithferion]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Live & learn, I guess.

Yes, I think the same. Also, maybe one day I will try all the options mentioned here and I will know it they are for me.

Best regards!

[GarryP]

I've been using a Logitech M185 - as far as I know, one step up from the M100 because it's wireless - but the clicking has been sending me barmy it's so loud.
That's why I'm looking for a replacement.
(I tried a Logitech M330 Silent Plus in PC World and it's so wonderfully quiet but it doesn't have any extra buttons or features.)

[IanSG]

1 hour ago, Mithferion said:

And here I am, I believe, the only guy using a simple Logitec M100 mouse.

A Logitec M100?  Luxury!  When I were a lad....  I'm still using a generic Chinese mouse I bought in Tesco about 10 years ago!

[Mithferion]

2 minutes ago, IanSG said:

A Logitec M100?  Luxury!  When I were a lad....  I'm still using a generic Chinese mouse I bought in Tesco about 10 years ago!

Now I see my mouse with a different view.

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, IanSG said:

A Logitec M100?  Luxury!  When I were a lad....  I'm still using a generic Chinese mouse I bought in Tesco about 10 years ago!

Lucky you! When I was a lad, we had to walk 10 miles uphill both ways in terrible weather just to go somewhere to get a glimpse of those newfangled rodent things people were talking about. 

[toltec]

12 minutes ago, IanSG said:

A Logitec M100?  Luxury!  When I were a lad....  I'm still using a generic Chinese mouse I bought in Tesco about 10 years ago!

Tesco ? you must be made of money. I bought my mouse from Poundland.

Can't remember exactly what I paid for it though 

[Wosven]

3 hours ago, Mithferion said:

And here I am, I believe, the only guy using a simple Logitec M100 mouse.

Best regards!

Haha ! (not enought "like" for today)

I"m looking at my old Logitech LX3, at her soft padding completely cracked and missing some parts… I had once a mouse with lot of options, but since I was clicking on them by error and strange things happened, I modifyed them until it was non important actions like next/previous page… and I ended disabling those too. If there's more than 1 button on my mouse, I'm happy!

Those expert mouses seems frigthening… Does every one use complex mouses and keyboards with programable buttons for differents apps ? (and remember those setting to use them ?)

[R C-R]

51 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Those expert mouses seems frigthening… Does every one use complex mouses and keyboards with programable buttons for differents apps ? (and remember those setting to use them ?)

I can only speak for myself, but with my Kensington trackball, I mostly stick to one 'global' setting for all apps, & only tweak a few of them slightly for a few apps, like maybe reducing pointer acceleration slightly when precision is more important to me than being able to move the pointer large distances with less trackball movement. I have not made any app-specific button function assignments. Aside from the usual left & right button ones, I have set one of the other buttons to do a 'button down' function so I don't have to keep holding down a button to drag something around or the like.

[SrPx]

Me, always 7 to 15 euros mouse (I only need it to be fast, cheap, with middle mouse button and wheel, that's it)...usually the cheaper Logitech (seems these, and the keyboards, are better and last longer, in my experience)...but always that brand (similar deal with the chairs, lol)... And with ye good old cable. Sitting besides a HUGE wacom xl DTP (actually, CAD version, as in the shop they got the order wrong , 9 years ago (I think) , but I actually loved the super complex CAD mouse included (to work over the tablet), so I did not return it.. I knew specs were mostly identical for other matters...that mouse been always taking dust, tho....

[GarryP]

The general gist of things seems to be either (1) get a trackball, or (2) go cheap.
I've had to go back to my old Logitech Laser something-or-other which I like better than the M185 but the batteries keep unseating themselves (which is why I changed over previously).
I'm not sure I would use the programmable buttons much but I think it would be nice to have them just in case they came in handy.

[Rocketdrive]

MX Master. It's robust, precise and ergonomic. But as always: try for Yourself.

[- S -]

On ‎6‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 1:16 PM, GarryP said:

The general gist of things seems to be either (1) get a trackball, or (2) go cheap.

It's hard to recommend the perfect mouse because I've yet to find one.

I don't buy Logitech mice anymore because I've needed to replace all the ones I've owned in the past due the buttons failing early (they start double-clicking by themselves or just fail).  I even had a Dell branded mouse at one point—which I found out afterwards was also made by Logitech—and that suffered the same fate too.  The only one I haven't needed to replace is an MX518, but that's probably because I stopped using it after about 6 months as I didn't really get on with the shape or the scroll wheel.  That was a while back and maybe Logitech have changed since then, I don't know as I stopped buying their products.

Razer joined the boycott list after they decided you needed to connect to the internet and create an online Synapse account with them in order to configure your mouse.  That was a while back and maybe Razer have changed since then, I don't know as I boycotted them.

A lot of the 'Laptop' mice are too small and I don't find them very comfortable.  They give me hand cramps and make my forearm ache and some don't even have two thumb buttons, which I use all the time as I map the 'forward' button to something else.

The Mionix Naos 7000 would get my consideration, but looking at the Amazon page it looks like it may have been discontinued now as Amazon aren't selling it themselves anymore.  Presumably the Mionix Naos QG is it's replacement, but I'm not sure whether a built-in heart rate monitor is something of a selling point for me personally…  I had an early Mionix Naos 3200 and I really liked the mouse and thought I had finally found the perfect mouse (it was nice looking, customisable, perfect shape—the ring and pinky fingers have their own rests, etc.), however the sensor was no good as it was too erratic with small movements, so I had to send it back in the end.  Again that was a while back and I seem to remember Mionix saying they resolved that issue with the Naos 7000 by using an optical sensor instead of the laser sensor they were currently using in the 3200, but I don't know as I haven't tried one since.

So, if I needed to buy a mouse right now, it would probably be the Microsoft Classic Intellimouse as I've never had a Microsoft mouse fail (I'm still using it's predecessor as we speak), they are subtle in appearance and I get on well with the 'Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard Centre' software.  Like the Naos it's a wired mouse, which is fine for me as I always use my computer on a desk in the same place and prefer wired mice anyway as wireless doesn't offer me any advantages.  My perfect mouse would probably be a Microsoft Classic Intellimouse in the shape of a Mionix Naos 7000.

The problem is I don't think these two are really what you're looking for.  They are great for me as I never really used mouse wheel tilt even when I had it and also never really used DPI switching either.  I thought DPI switching may come in handy in Photoshop, such as changing it to do intricate selections, but in reality I ended up just setting up the mouse to the DPI I liked and kept it at that for everything.  So I don't really know what the best mouse would be for you as it sounds like you want something with more bells & whistles than these.

I must admit I have always been intrigued by trackballs and quite fancied playing around with one as there's no denying that people who use them seem to love them, but I also don't know how easy it would be to get used to one for gaming as my muscle memory is set to traditional mice.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, - S - said:

I must admit I have always been intrigued by trackballs and quite fancied playing around with one as there's no denying that people who use them seem to love them, but I also don't know how easy it would be to get used to one for gaming as my muscle memory is set to traditional mice.

There are some good reasons to love them, but they are not all obvious until you have used them for some time & have developed the muscle memory needed to exploit them. For example, the trackball on my Kensington is large; the ball by itself weighs more than most mice; & it sits on 3 very low friction synthetic ruby bearings. As a result, moving it is always smooth & consistent, unlike the feel of a mouse that changes depending on the surface it is used on.

The weight gives it real physical momentum & excellent tactile feedback, so it can be flicked with a finger to set it spinning, & then be stopped with the same finger & moved in the conventional way in one fluid motion. This means you can effortlessly send the pointer over large distances in the general direction of whatever you want to target & then, when it gets near it, roll the ball to zero in on it precisely. It sounds like something that would be hard to control, but in a few days it begins to feel so natural & intuitive that soon muscle memory will take over & you won't even think about how you did it.

Unlike with a mouse, you are not moving the whole thing with all the parts in it, so the housing can be made much larger & use heavy, high strength materials & bulkier industrial grade switches. This is why high end trackballs typically have decades long service lives, & also why they are so expensive.

But all that said, they still are not right for everyone, or for every kind of work. There are no easy answers for this.

[GarryP]

@Rocketdrive I'll have another look at the MX Master, thanks.
@- S - Lots of good suggestions and info' there. The Intellimouse looks interesting. I think part of the problem is that I don't actually know what I want. I have some ideas about what I might want but until I have the facility I don't really know if they are things I would really want. For instance, I could buy a new car whose driver's door automatically opens when I get near to it. Sounds useful at first - especially if it's raining - but probably a bit of a pain if it keeps denting the vehicle next to it in a car park. I'll probably go for something middle-spec' and take a chance that the bells and whistles don't get in the way of what I want to do if I don't use them.
@R C-R You're making trackballs more and more like something I want to try. Maybe I can find somewhere I can get a decent demo.
Cheers all.