Hummingbird gen2

Hi guys! New to the forum and prity new to trying tattooing. So be gentle with me. I am looking into getting a hummingbird gen2 from tattooshop.com I have some coil machines but wanted to try a rotary. Question is are these any good for a beginner and could I line and shade ok with it? Reason I ask is I see a video of someone saying they don’t line well but then see another one of someone raving how it does it all so well. Cheers guys

I have one of these machines. I used it without much trouble over several months and with standard tubes and needles it ran well, had perceptible give and minimal vibration. I mainly used it for black and grey. In fact I also have a gen 1, which runs exactly the same BUT feels altogether more plasticky and flimsy.

Very recently I tried my gen 2 with cartridge needles and in short…it didn’t like them.

As a practise machine within a budget I would give a thumbs up, with a caveat being that for around the same money you could get a much better rotary in a Dragonhawk Raven. I own a stigma hyper 3, but still regurlarly pick up my Raven for colour packing and lining with moderate groupings. If you do go Raven, buy direct from Dragonhawk, as (ironically) there are poor-performing clones of the Raven, which is a clone of a Sabre. Where’s the honour amongst thieves?