Vuescan what a pain in the neck...

Rogier

Rogier

Rogier Willems
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Jul 7, 2008
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Today I received my new Canon Coolscan 8800F

Exited I unpacked the box downloaded the latest software from the mfg’s website and was soon the scanner was humming, presenting me some very nice first scans. Even batch scanning of my Holga negatives went without a glitch. Wonderful!

Since the supplied software is rather limited I wanted to use Hamrick’s Vuescan. Something I have been using with my friends Coolscan 9000.

Once again getting Vuescan to work is a painful experience.
At first it claimed there where no Canon drivers. Then I had to install Rosetta and check that Vuescan will use it to open the application in Mac 10.6.2.
Still it did not work. Via the release notes I had to find out that I needed to find, download and install a poorly rated old piece of Canon software that Vuescan obviously relies on to work….
Still it did not work. So I had to go down into the library and delete a .plist that conveniently was named “hamrick.xxx.plist” rather than something one could recognize as “vuescan.xxx.plist”….

Still it did not work.
Needless to say that I have rebooted my Macbook Pro Unibody various times times…
When booted from an other account it worked however Hamrick wanted me to buy it again??? Its on the same computer!!!
Returning back to my user account I was 2 hours later able to start scanning with Vuescan.

What was easy for the simple Canon Application is still a mayor task that I am still not able to master in Vuescan. Batch scan……

Vuescan desperately needs to be updated. Probably rewritten. And come with a decent set of instructions that are easy to read and follow. And up to date please. The lack of all this might be acceptable for some freeware but certainly not worth the money Hamrick asks for it.

Desperate I took a look at the Silverfast website. Just the design of the site and their strange pricing structure make me curl my toes just looking at it.
 
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Believe me I really want to like it!

Sorry for misspelling the name. Will have to correct that.

I work all day on computers but this is just way to user unfriendly...
 
I use VueScan with a Nikon 5000, an Epson 750, an HP all-in-one office-fax-copier and a Canoscan 8800F. I didn't think it was worth when I reinstalled OS X to use the Canon drivers, so I just quit using it with Vuescan. I think Canon and VueScan is maybe not the best match. On the other 3 devices, I have no problems. That's pretty much the situation as I see it. Best, JP Ps: I decided not to use SilverFast because I use many different scanners and they wanted me to buy a different program for each scanner... The modular construction supposedly made it impossible to just buy one program... Yeah, right! Kiss my ass.
 
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Rogier said:
Once again getting Vuescan to work is a painful experience.
At first it claimed there where no Canon drivers. Then I had to install Rosetta and check that Vuescan will use it to open the application in Mac 10.6.2.
Click to expand...

Curious. I'm running Vuescan on 10.6.2 on an Intel machine and it's never asked for Rosetta, unlike NikonScan.

I've fed data from a Canon XTi into Vuescan with no problems.
 
Please Rogier, do send Hamrick an email with the list of issues you encountered. That will be beneficial for all of us.

Thanks,

Roland.
 
JP,

Thanks for chiming in. So manny people are religious about this software. But I can’t see why unless its free.
I had it working with the Coolscan 9000 but getting it to work was also not an easy thing to do.

Same thing about Silverfast. Their pricing structure feels more like a ripp-off.
 
Rogier said:
When booted from an other account it worked however Hamrick wanted me to buy it again??? Its on the same computer!!!
Returning back to my user account I was 2 hours later able to start scanning with Vuescan.
Click to expand...

Registration data is stored per account so you'll need to re-register Vuescan if you're using multiple accounts on your Mac. (FWIW, the registration data seems to be stored in a so-called "dot file" called .vuescanrc at the root of your home directory.)

I've never had these kinds of problems with Vuescan but I'm using a Coolscan 5000 on my MacBook Pro. I do agree that the UI could be much friendlier and more Mac-like, though.
 
I absolutely agree that the GUI needs a revamp - but then, Silverfast needs that even more urgently, and the manufacturer supplied software usually is not only deficient in the GUI but can't scan properly either...
 
Well Vuescan is indeed quite a b*tch to setup properly, took me 2 months on my Windows machine to have a complete workflow, I gave up Vuescan on Mac lol. But bear with it, it really is the only choice around that will give you full control.
 
When I had a Nikon film scanner I used the regular old Nikonscan software, and on my Epson flatbed I use the bundled Epson software. I have the Vuescan, but don't really see why it would do a better job. Maybe right out of the scanner, but I always make all of my corrections post scan in Photoshop, so no big deal. I have yet to see any evidence that Vuescan produces scans w/ more detail than the bundled software after image editing.
 
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once you get it up and running and have figured out all the bits and pieces you'll love it. it really is great. it's all i use with my epson v700 and plustek 7600i

i'm so happy i persevered to properly understand the best workflow, though it is kind of long winded and illogical in some ways :)
 
I don't know. I have been using vuescan since I started using film cameras. No issue that I have encountered. I just hope the rename function can be tweaked somewhat.
 
Neither Vuescan nor Silverfast are worth a damn UI-wise. Both look like hack jobs from the beginning. Hack jobs that got out of control and went too far until it just got way too expensive to stop, backup, and do things the right way.

(BTW -- I'm a software designer from way back with several successful products under my belts)

It's sad actually. Both probably are capable of producing excellent scans and perhaps even better then the OEM software but they are ridiculously difficult to use for different reasons.

I still use the Nikon, Minolta, and Epson software for my respective scanners -- this despite a "deal" from Silverfast to get versions for each scanner so I could standardize.

I have and have paid for Vuescan but it is total guesswork to scan anything.
 
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wgerrard said:
Curious. I'm running Vuescan on 10.6.2 on an Intel machine and it's never asked for Rosetta, unlike NikonScan.

I've fed data from a Canon XTi into Vuescan with no problems.
Click to expand...


It depends what type of Canon scanner you are using. Its all written somewhere on his release notes...
 
fbf said:
I don't know. I have been using vuescan since I started using film cameras. No issue that I have encountered. I just hope the rename function can be tweaked somewhat.
Click to expand...


Batch scanning MF film?

I can’t get it to work properly.
 
ferider said:
Please Rogier, do send Hamrick an email with the list of issues you encountered. That will be beneficial for all of us.

Thanks,

Roland.
Click to expand...

I would like to if his contact information was not hidden somewhere on his site. For sure he is reading this forum and will hopefully pick-up on the users experience…

Beside rewriting the software. I have one easy hint for him:
Publish Youtube videos showing how to use the various aspects of Vuescan :cool:
 
I have a Canon FS4000 originally on XP, when I changed to Vista, Canon had no driver, Vuescan came to rescue with no problems. Scanner has now died and Canon cannot or wont repair (light failed!!) now got Plustek 7400, comes with Silverfast.
Anyone used this Scanner with Vuescan??
I havent loaded driver or Silverfast yet, worried about software comflicts, any hints?
Still on Vista.
 
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