VueScan is not working out

karavite

Registered
Based on all the raves I purchased VueScan to work with OS X 10.2.1 and my new Epson Perfection 2450. Even though my scanner is listed as supported by VueScan, as suggested on VueScan's site, I tried it out before purchasing and despite some completely off auto crops, it seemed to work.

So, I purchase the SN and now the fun begins.

1. Every time I quit VueScan it crashes (program unexpectedly quit).
2.The UI is super slow to respond (click on an option and it takes 3 seconds to change).
3. I really hate its UI/usability - I'll spend my time color correcting and cropping in photoshop.

This is all on a brand new DP 1 GHz with 769 MB RAM that runs everything else perfectly and super darn fast. I'm sorry, but although VueScan does allow me to use my scanner (Epson can go to he|| for not supporting OS X), it's not this fabulous app everyone is raving about. Go ahead and spam me, I don't care. It's UI is pure amateur work and it has obvious bugs if it crashes on Apple's second hottest Mac running OS X 10.2.1.
 
Originally posted by karavite
This is all on a brand new DP 1 GHz with 769 MB RAM that runs everything else perfectly and super darn fast. I'm sorry, but although VueScan does allow me to use my scanner (Epson can go to he|| for not supporting OS X), it's not this fabulous app everyone is raving about. Go ahead and spam me, I don't care. It's UI is pure amateur work and it has obvious bugs if it crashes on Apple's second hottest Mac running an OS X 10.2.1.

I'll complain about it too, as soon as it supports my hp 3500 scanner. :(

I could use my hp os x drivers that came with it, but they suck up 40-70% of my cpu (933 QS, 1024mb ram) when it's not running, constantly looking for someone to press one of the front buttons. Had to remove the drivers in fact, so I could use my system! :mad:
 
Omegaman, that is crazy!

Doesn't Apple think we will all want to buy hardware to go with our Macs? Since the hardware compaines don't seem to care, why doesn't (as was suggested somewhere on this site) Apple buy out VueScan, clean up the UI, add support for more scanners and let us easily do what PC users do all the time. Gee, I guess scanners aren't part of a the sacred "digital hub"! With PC prices as low as they are, it might be worth buying a cheapo Gateway so you can scan!

I retract some of my harshness toward VueScan - it is a good effort, and I'm darn happy to have paid the $40 so I can use this nice new scanner with OS X. However, they need to keep up on this - it aint open source or freeware and $40 is a little high to not offer any support. Still, without them, where would I be right now? I'll tell you where - scanning in Classic!
 
I have a B & W PowerMac G3, 500MHz, 768MB RAM, an HP ScanJet 5300C and everything works perfectly. I don't understand why the UI is so slow on your fast machine. Something is definitely not working right with your configuration. Did you contact the author of VueScan? VueScan is fast on my system and it sometimes crashes when I quit it, but it's no big deal, it NEVER crashes during operation, and the color balance and detail of the scans is so much better than any software included with the scanner. Personally, I would never buy any more Epson equipment after owning one of their printers - very cheaply made and worse, it streaks when it prints. I do not trust Epson's products; they seem a little quirky, kinda like the older printers that worked with Windows 7 and 8 years ago. Sell your Epson scanner on Ebay, and go get an HP scanner. I know they're more expensive, BUT you get what you pay for, AND make sure the scanner works with VueScan. If you have to, pick up an HP 5300C scanner from Ebay, they should be pretty cheap by now.

I'm a very happy customer with VueScan.
 
Two things:

1. have you contacted the guy that writes vuescan? I had a problem and he was very prompt in answering my questions.

This guy is a maniac! He updated the software every few days and it is usually in response to some very specific bugs (I read versiontracker.com daily).

I'm sure that if you talk to him and he can figure it out, he'll patch and release a small update (he has released over 50 updates to the latest version of his software - most of them address a handful of bugs at a time. New features creep in from time to time.

2. Have you tried deleting the app and redownloading it?
 
Originally posted by karavite
Omegaman, that is crazy!

Doesn't Apple think we will all want to buy hardware to go with our Macs? Since the hardware compaines don't seem to care, why doesn't (as was suggested somewhere on this site) Apple buy out VueScan, clean up the UI, add support for more scanners and let us easily do what PC users do all the time. Gee, I guess scanners aren't part of a the sacred "digital hub"! With PC prices as low as they are, it might be worth buying a cheapo Gateway so you can scan!

You never truly miss something until it's gone. I exchanged my hp 4400c scanner for the 3500c, for the os x native drivers (I didn't like scanning in classic). But there's no specific classic setup for the scanner! I can't even make the software run classic! I think it's a plugin.....dunno since os x changes the program it opens with, so i dunno it's original one.

I completely agree with you karavite! The scanner is part of the digital hub! I've put together MY digital hub....have my 15" studio display, my qs 933, a gig of ram, 100gb hd space, a photo printer, and a digital video camera that does 1mp stills (sony dcrpc101 - thumbs up! hehe)....why for not thou not like my scanner? :mad:

Oh, I'll have a question or two, to ask the folks at the genius bar, when I stop by Cupertino on Monday! :->
 
I'm using Canon N676U scanner with VueScan (can't remember version) on OS X.2.1. Two choices:

1) First one, I'm lucky, it works fine, scans quick.
2) Second one, I'm cursed: it crashes the whole computer.

Plus, I don't like those amateur picture settings.
 
Originally posted by Esquare
Uhm, I have an Epson 2450 also and it works natively under OSX 10.2. Why on Earth would you use Vuescan if you can get fine working (trial) drivers from Epson?[/url]

Probably because where on Earth Epson hides this on their web site was a mystery to me until now. I just don't take the time (nor should I have to) to read through 5 text heavy pages to find a stupid driver. However, I am being rude to Epson, but should not be to you so thanks for the link!

If you go here:
http://support.epson.com/hardware/scanner/per245/

where you think you would find drivers (the driver page on Epson's site for this printer - seems logical to me) there is nothing listed as a driver for OS X. There is a link referring to OS X Support that leads to http://support.epson.com/webadvice/wa0301.html. I actually visited this page and was on my way to exploring the links that would lead to your page, but the "leaving Epson site" message through me. Also, I remember from months ago Epson having a similar page that said nothing more than they OS X support was in the works.

I guess it really is my fault for not reading through 5-7 screens of text heavy pages. Why not just put the God d@mn link on the driver page? Well because that would make too much sense and it does not fit their corporate structure. The support page is controlled by someone different than the person who controls the beta driver page. This happens all the time. When are web page "designers" going to realize that the web is not a god d@mn newspaper. I don't want to or need to read all that blah blah crap - just put a link "beta driver for OS X" on the driver page. Or does that make too much sense.?
 
I feel your pain... Well, not really. ;)

That trial version is already in version 3, as you may have noticed. I've been using this and earlier versions for at least four months. A visit to Versiontracker every now and then won't hurt....

Aside from that I'm wondering if OSX 10.2 doesn't support the Epson 2450 out of the box anyway. I have another machine with an Epson 2400 attached to it, and originally I didn't even had to install any drivers: it was picked up by Image Capture immediately!

:)
 
I guess it was my fault for assuming lousy support by Epson. It seems that OS X is some kind of mystery to so many hardware mfgs. I just assumed the worst.
 
Why use VueScan instead of the vendor's drivers:

I have an Astra 6400 (Firewire). I used the drivers under OS9 before buying VueScan. One time I had to scan 300 photos. I scanned them and returned the originals. As I was looking through the scans, I saw that a picture had a 1 inch thick band of noise. :eek:

After looking at the other pictures, I realized that about 10% of all the scans had that problem (mind you, I was being careful not to ask the software to chew gum and walk at the same time because that invariably caused errors. - that's another story).

I bought VueScan the same day and have not regretted it.

I tried UMAX's OSX drivers. They still sucked. I don't scan often, but when I do scan, I need to scan dozens or hundreds or photos. VueScan is well worth the $40 for peace of mind and software that I *know* will work.
 
Epson's support for everything OSX is out there with the fairies. As much as I dislike them for this lack of attention, I do understand that they have to make money - and that means, naturally, chucking out tat for WindowsWorld.

I think there's been a sea change with this company - I believe they were quick enough to support previous Mac OS's with great drivers but now they seem to think Macs are definately second-rate.

And Epson's build quality is 'plasticy' nowadays. I guess production economics are biting.
Most of the manufacturers with an OSX 'sloth' issue ought to remember that they would be half the size they are now if it weren't for Mac users in publishing and advertising.
 
Lazzo - I agree completely. What I don't get is this kind of thinking by Epson and others. If I were in marketing at some hardware company I think I could argue that "if we demonstrate really top notch support for OS X, by simply writing a few drivers and including a $.50 CD with each product, we will have a big advantage at landing the printer and scanner sales for %5 of the all the purchasers of new computers. In effect, we have the potential to increase our sales by up to 5% with little effort." 5% increases are huge for these companies.

Of course, this kind of logical thinking is about the last thing you will find in most marketing or executive offices.
 
Yes - and that's 5% year on year. Let's guess they have $150,000,000 turnover. 5% = $7,500,000 a year for a company like Epson.

Five year projection through development of OSX - extra £37,500,000.

If their shares are $10 each, they'd be something like $20 in a very short time.

There you go, we've sorted them out - who's next? (I'd add a smiley, but they don't work for me anymore)
 
I bought a Canon 670U, which is listed on the Canon site as supported, and their drivers failed to work. I then tried ViewScan, which claimed to support that model, and it also failed to work on two scanners of that model.

Hence, you cannot even trust the claims of the hardware manufacturers, either.
 
Originally posted by Lazzo
Yes - and that's 5% year on year. Let's guess they have $150,000,000 turnover. 5% = $7,500,000 a year for a company like Epson.

Five year projection through development of OSX - extra £37,500,000.

If their shares are $10 each, they'd be something like $20 in a very short time.

There you go, we've sorted them out - who's next? (I'd add a smiley, but they don't work for me anymore)

Hi Lazzo, I'd say HP is next! They are getting their a$$es kicked everywhere so you think they could do a little creative market share grabbing too. In business speak, seems like supporting OS X has a high ROI potential (return of investment) - have a few Russians write the darn drivers! (the inside joke here is HP had some poor Russian immigrant programmers locked up in a building in NYC a few years ago - almost slave wages... what a bunch of pigs - HP.)

:D :D :D (here are a few for you)
 
Back
Top