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Ok so, I usually don’t dip into this because well, most people don’t understand. Mouse and Keyboards even as photographers editing with a Wacom seem like outdated ways of doing things. I understand this, why would you invest more than $20 in a mouse and keyboard these days?
Believe it or not there’s good reason to buy a good set of mice and keyboards and it doesn’t even come with the sticker shock you’d expect. There’s keyboards for video gamers out there that cost up to $250 and mice that easily go over the $100 mark.

With that said, if you find that typing is actually annoying or that your keys stick, lock or otherwise jam then I have to suggest you look into “mechanical” keyboards (MECHANICAL not Gamer). They’re the ones you older computer users will remember making that “clickity clack” sound when you typed only now it’s much more quiet and the pressure to press a key is far less so it’s easier both on you and your body when you find yourself typing out a lot or trying to move quickly through Photoshop. This is because the mechanical keyboards are actually analog, that’s right something old is still better then the latest and greatest! Now that doesn’t mean go to the thrift store and pick up one of those old bad boys, because the new ones have more benefits like an included headphone and microphone jack, USB ports and even if you like backlit keys to make them easier to spot while photoshopping! A good mechanical keyboard will run you as little as $60 up to $160 (I went with the $160 option; but I’m a geek so please don’t think you have to spend big to get good results). The benefits are you won’t need a new keyboard for at least 4 times as long as your last keyboard lasted if you want to keep it around that long and life just is made a little easier… truly.

As for the mice, this is the place I will say you want to look at the gamer aspect. Today’s mice are camera based, and usually they see with light from a lazer (infrared on most gaming mice) because of this the speed, and quality of the mouse tracking is completely based on how much detail the camera can see. Additionally unlike the cheaper mice of today, gaming mice let you control the weight of your mouse using weights which is a feature I have grown to LOVE. When you can control how fast your mouse moves no matter how fast you move your wrist and give it some weight so it doesn’t feel like you’re clicking around with an empty box of tic-tac’s life is all the better. There are times even when I’m photoshopping now that I have a weighted mouse and have better control over it’s movements I will prefer it over my Wacom. A good mouse is even cheap, while there are some that offer custom grips and such a good gaming mouse on sale can be had for $40 (sometimes less) and a standard retail price around $60. My current preference for mice is the Logitech G500 which has all the quality of their $100 mouse without the price tag. It has many additional buttons that can be programmed to do tasks in Photoshop such as short cuts and just is a great mouse all around.
So if you’re still using the little keyboard and lifeless mouse that came free with your computer and would like a little more luxury when mousing around I seriously suggest looking into an upgrade. For the price it’s all the better to have them around.

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