NEUTRALZONE  You really, really should be using a FireWire to SCSI adapter instead of wasting your time with USB to SCSI (two flaky standards...together! What could possibly go wrong?).

I have been using a FireWire to SCSI adapter with my Nikon scanner, for years, with VueScan. Sure, VueScan's had some quirks, but the adapter itself has been FLAWLESS through OS X updates and upgrades, and VueScan has not had problems with the adapter. It's been a very long time since I worried about any of my old SCSI devices in OS X. It's time to put an end to your misery. Forget Adaptec cards and adapters; they just don't work. Buy the right gadget.  
(Version 8.4.30)

FOULGER  Instead of publicly slanging one of the most useful and updated pieces of indispensable Mac Software, why don't you take the trouble to E-Mail the author - I have found him always willing to answer E-Mails on many occasions. Think how a moment of grumpiness because something doesn't suit little old you can cause much harm to the reputation of the author and spoil it for the thousands of users that do find it indispensable. Before opening the mouth, engage the brain.  
(Version 8.4.35)

SILVERDR  Thank you for your valuable input. Just for completeness: I did contact the author several times and we had two-way conversations couple of times. Some of the numerous "fixed problem with..." change log messages you can safely blame on my persistence in reporting and explaining to the author. This doesn't change the pure facts I presented. I could of course use more formal language in the first sentences but I believe that different form of those sentences wouldn't change the substance of my review. With kind regards, silverdr.  
(Version 8.4.35)

MOOG MODULAR  From "sucks badly" to "kind regards"???

Your persistence helped this app?

Aren't you special?

I've never seen someone pat themselves on the back while backpedaling.

You should work in a circus.

Be thankful for what you have, not a whiner for what you don't.

There isn't an app on the market that 100% pleases everyone.

Your comments speak for a small minority of users.

For the price and the wide variety of scanners vuescan supports, next time... STFU!  
(Version 8.4.37)

SILVERDR  Reading with comprehension isn't your strongest point, is it? If it was, you would have noticed that value (which is in direct corelation to price) is given five stars there and the range of supported scanners is what I praise a lot.

But you believe that because of the app being inexpensive and actually doing some job with so many scanners - I should just STFU and not tell anyone about its shortcommings nor the poor experiences I had with the scanners I happen to work with??

P.S. My persistence didn't really help this app - It still sucks badly - This persistence only helped to fix some of the obvious problems of infrared cleaning not working at all or corrupting the images instead of working poorly.  
(Version 8.4.37)

F451  The sad part is that you seem to be taking out on Hamrick what is truly the responsibility of the scanner manufacturer. Hamrick steps-in where the manufacturers fail, and get lambasted for doing so? Go figure?  
(Version 8.4.38)

VICLEN  If you're using a high-end scanners such as a flat-bed Heidelberg or a Crosfield drum scanner where the dedicated scan software won't work with Mac OS X, stick with an old Mac and OS 9. That will also solve your connectivity problem.

If, as is likely to be the case, your scanners aren't really that high-end, definitely switch to a SCSI to FireWire converter. I use one with both Heidelberg and Umax flatbeds faultlessly.

Unless you're floating transparencies on oil, you're very unlikely to get good results from any 1200dpi flatbed and even many of the 35mm scanners are pretty poor.

As for Vuescan, I use it with two decent standard flat-bed scanners. It does an excellent job in all modes, including transparencies up to 200% or so with care. It is a little quirky, especially with screened material, but without it I would have had to invest a lot of money in new scanners.

Don't use this as a whinge forum - you won't benefit in any way.  
(Version 8.4.39)

SILVERDR  Hm, judging from the replies I receive I see I definitely miscommunnicated my thoughts. :-(

I am actually very happy with the fact that VueScan allows me to use (otherwise completely unsupported under OS X) Adaptec's USB to SCSI adapter to connect the old SCSI scanner and that's a PLUS. I nowhere suggested that I had connectivity problems but rather the opposite - suddenly (thanks to VueScan) my old scanner was again usable without any special drivers for OSX. And for that purpose it (VueScan) serves very well and I don't have any real problems with it but also the results from 10+ yrs old hardware are adequate - I don't expect high-end result from that kind of hardware.

But what I did have problems with are the higher-end scanners. I initially tried to use EPSON Perfection 4870, which was a top of the line A4 flatbet with transparency scanning capability at the time of its introduction. Since EPSON software (even if sometimes delivering good images) was/is a complete disaster to use! So I turned to VueScan and found that interface and workflow (while far from being perfect) was substantially better (i.e. "sucked" substantially less) and effective than what EPSON's or SilverFast was able to provide. That was good part. The bad part was that the final results (especially with transparencies) were poor when compared to what the hardware was capable of.

The final result was that I never got satisfying results from the EPSON flatbeds. In big part it was caused by software being either virtually unusable (EPSON, partially SilverFast) or incapable of utilising the hardware/postprocess well (VueScan). The decision was to move to Nikon scanners and those were (still are) LS-5000 for 35mm and LS-9000 for medium format, which (both) I find to be rather "higher-end" and I am very satisfied with what they are capable of but again - VueScan didn't deliver anything close to accpetable when compared to what the hardware is capable of.

Also it only very recently started to be able to recognise the frames on the film, it crashed, it left the scanner in unusable state after quitting (I had to power-cycle the Nikons to get them back) etc., etc. So - to sum this all up - for lower-end scanners, where one doesn't expect top-notch results - VueScan is very good and "sucks" far LESS than any other software I checked! On the other hand, when the top results are of importance and the hardware (at least those types which I tested) is capable of delivering them - VueScan doesn't hold. As I also wrote - YMMV especially if you have different scanners, they may be better supported but ALL those (higher-end) I had chance to test were not :-(

Regards,

silverdr  
(Version 8.4.39)

HOLYPOLY  Another thing to consider is, that the upgrade code can only be used on one single machine - you have to deactivate 3.6 to use it on another computer.  
(Version 3.6)