Ken,
I was told years ago by a 20+ year transcriptionist that she was always
on the lookout for an old IBM Model M keyboard. She said it had the best
feel and touch of any keyboard she had ever used. Perhaps you should hunt
one down.
Charlie
On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 1:55 PM Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> As many of you will recall from my various comments and discussions
> about the Canon DSLR bodies, I have carpel tunnel in both wrists. This
> has proven to be an issue with some camera bodies as well as with
> other seemingly mundane tasks.
>
> Like typing.
>
> The problem for typing is the general lack of feeling in the finger
> tips. I learned touch-typing back in high-school and find today's
> keyboards to be nearly impossible to type on. The keyboards are flat,
> have no real tactile response and have minimal (2mm typical) movement.
> And because of the short 2mm movement, they tend to be a little
> stiffer. It's really hard for me to type anymore.
>
> Last week, one of my external keyboards died so I went down to Best
> Buy to get something else. I knew from playing around with them and
> with my research, that mechanical gaming keyboards were worth
> considering. So, I spent the next couple hours drifting from one to
> another and looking up reviews and information on the Interwebs.
>
> The standard keyboard is a membrane style keyboard where you press
> down on this rubber dome with conductor inside and it shorts across a
> contact on the motherboard. There are a couple of styles of this, but
> these membrane switches generally have very poor tactile response. The
> better ones do have a give point where they resist up to a point then
> will plunge quickly. Other ones are totally linear in response.
> Another factor of the membrane style switch is that they generally
> don't last as long.
>
> Stepping up to a mechanical keyboard of pretty much any style switch
> is a different world. The switches themselves come in variations of
> three flavors: Clicky, Linear and Tactile. The Cherry MX switches are
> the standard ones out there with other manufacturers building switches
> of similar types.
>
> Clicky: (Cherry MX Blue) is the closest thing to an old-style
> typewriter keyboard you will encounter. It's loud, but is completely
> natural to any of us who mastered typing on typewriters. The aural
> feedback is great for those who have little feeling left in their
> fingers as you can hear whether or not the key is pressed.
>
> Linear: (Cherry MX Red) is better for gamers as the buttons have no
> half-press catch to them. They just plunge down. Similar to the
> membrane switches, but without the bump. I wasn't particularly fond of
> this style switch as it didn't really address all of my particular
> needs. But for gaming, yeah, Reds Rock! Horrible for touch-typing
> though.
>
> Tactile: (Cherry MX Brown) is probably the nicest compromise. These
> switches are somewhat Linear, but with a half-press bump. Depending on
> the brand/model, they may have some aural feedback.
>
> I had narrowed the selection down to three keyboards: The "HyperX
> Alloy FPS" with MX Blue (clicky) switches, the "Logitech G513" with
> Romer-G Tactile switches, and one of the "Razer" Blackwidow keyboards
> with their green tactile/clicky switches.
>
> While each had distinct advantages, it really was a toss-up between
> all of them. I think the Razer's keyboard had ever so slightly better
> keys as they provide the clickiness that I needed, but weren't nearly
> as LOUD as the MX Blue switches nor was the plunge distance the same.
> The Logitech was good, but I couldn't quite place why I wasn't getting
> along with it. In the absence of the Razer and HyperX, I would have
> been pleased with the Logitech, although the software is problematic
> as I need to maximum use this keyboard on multiple computers,
> including my work one that I can't load other drivers on.
>
> I ended up purchasing the HyperX Alloy FPS with MX Cherry Blue
> switches. The keyboard is the right size (no extra keys, no
> programmable extra buttons, no drivers, no software). It is backlit,
> with multiple brightness and pattern options, but is red LED only.
> It's a heavy keyboard with a steel faceplate. The keys have the right
> curvature to them (and appropriate stepped profile from one row to the
> next) and respond well to off-axis pressing. These days, I would like
> slightly less force required for pressing the keys, these MX Blue
> switches allow me to raise my fingers up more off the keys like I used
> to and punch down on them instead of just rolling down on them.
> Exactly like the old days. The fact that the HyperX was also one of
> the least expensive keyboards didn't hurt either.
>
> Having been using it now for several days, I will say that the
> keyboard is definitely LOUD. Not a keyboard for use in an office
> environment with others around. I am working out of the house most of
> the time, so it matters little to me how much noise the keyboard
> makes. Regardless, my typing speed is probably 20 wpm faster than
> before, so it's a HUGE win.
>
> A good compromise keyboard that I would suggest would be any Logitech
> with the Romer-G Tactile switches, the Razer keyboards with the clicky
> switches or a keyboard with the Cherry MX Brown switches. These all
> have similar feel to the MX Blues, but without the loud sound.
>
> I was going to get the Razer keyboard, but didn't because they didn't
> have exactly the model in stock that I wanted, and the price was 50%
> more than the HyperX. Sometimes frugality still wins out.
>
> Next time you need to buy a new keyboard, definitely look at the
> mechanical gaming keyboards and check out any with the "Tactile"
> switches first. If noise is not an issue, the Cherry MX Blue switches
> are a throwback to the typing days of the past. Next time I have to
> work in an office environment again, I will likely get an MX Brown
> equipped keyboard for that location.
>
> AG (click-track) Schnozz
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