Pay $29 for upgrade now have to pay for compatible scanner/camera etc

I am also a Canon owner and user, and have had several canons in my home, their support for Mac OS has always been pretty good. This does not mean there are not problems, mainly with older scanners, for which ViewScan is always a good solution, even for very old scanners.

Thanks to rabrack, jackygage and others I, an aged dummy downunder, was finally able to get, with assistance, my 8400F scanner working with Lion.

Many thanks.

reagan9000 - One trick I've used several times is to install the old scanner drivers into a virtual computer running on your Mac. Snow Leopard runs great under VirtualBox on even the newest quadcore i7 iMacs. VirtualBox's support for Windows XP is even better and it seems to run faster than Snow Leopard as a virtual machine. I use the VirtualBox/XP combo to run the original software that came with my Nikon Coolscan 5000 scanner. It's easy to map a folder on your Mac into the virtual XP and scan directly into that Mac folder. In practice it is only slightly less convenient than running native scanning software on your Mac. It may be the only option for some older, less popular scanners. Your exposure to the Windows environment in this setup is limited and not painful. VirtualBox is free and you can pick up a copy of Windows 2000 for almost nothing on eBay which is good if Windows 2000 will work for you. Alternatively, you can install any newer Windows OS. I even have Windows 8 preview running under VirtualBox and VueScan works well under it, not that you would ever need to do that since VueScan works so very well under Mountain Lion. Anyway, there are free or low cost options to allow you to use your older hardware and software with the newest Mac OS's.

I too can also vouch for Vuescan that my Cannon scanner is working with ML with no problems at all. This week have scanned an old post card and created a PDF with no problems. It costs money, but its cheaper than buying a whole new scanner.

I just tried Vuescan and its works with my 9950f and Mountin Lion. The software interface is also much better than the CanoScan Toolbox so may be worth the price for that alone. 🙂

Hey,

I know I am late coming into this thread, so sorry if anyone else asked this question.

I am not a huge hi-definition scanner so I use ImageCapture for all of my scanning needs.

Are the scanning software that you folks talking about a lot more robust in their capability of producing scanned documents?

I ask because since discovering ImageCapture, I have yet to install any printer/scanner software from any manufacturer that comes with the periferal equipment.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks.

Adam

VueScan is much more powerful than most (any?) manufacturers software that comes with a scanner. Most of the added features have to do with scanning negatives and transparencies though. If you are only scanning photos, there isn't a lot of advantage to using VueScan except that it may be the only way to drive your scanner, especially if it is an older model that is no longer supported by the manufacturer.

For quick scans of documents and photos, ImageCapture (or Preview) used to work great for me. I used it for my CanoScan 9950f in Snow Leopard quite often, even though the native Canon software worked well, too. Under Lion though, ImageCapture got flaky with my scanner, and with Mountain Lion it doesn't work at all. Neither does the native Canon software. Fortunately VueScan still works great and I can still use the scanner which is a pretty good scanner, especially for large format transparencies and negatives.

I can add my 2 cents worth - I thought I had Vuescan, did not - downloaded a version and it works just fine with OS 10.8 and the Canon 9950F. Impressed enough to purchase my copy of Vuescan. My thanks to all those who suggested - the thought of purchasing a new scanner when my old one is still in such good condition was kind of maddening.

Absolutely Wonderful! Thank you, Rabrack! It truly is better than before, and you have served your earth well by keeping thousands of scanners out of the dump (and thousands of nasty emails out of Canon's inbox... well, maybe not, but that's their kuleana).

aloha.

Those of you with VueScan - does it retain the functionality of the front buttons on the 8400f? We use that Copy button all the time for one. Will that still work with VueScan?

Yes it does, at least with my Canon 9950f. I tested this today: You need to have the (old) driver installed that puts the file CNQL4801_ButtonManager into the folder Library/CFMSupport. If it is not added to your login items with the checkbox "hide" checked then add it yourself. Then restart or just double-click CNQL4801_ButtonManager. Then you may configure all 4 buttons in VueScan as you wish. Excellent for batch scanning and copying. .

http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/html/vuesc33.htm#prefsbutton1234action

I also found that I have to run the 32-bit version of VueScan for my scanner to work. I have not added the scanner in system prefs print & scan and have not opened the Image Capture app.

Curiously, running Mountain Lion, I have occasionaly been able to open the native ScanGear CS driver window and have scanned tons of 35mm slides with it. I did this using a version of ExactScan Pro with the checkbox "use native driver" checked. However, when I close the ScanGear CS window it doesn't necessarily open again. I have to do all sorts of voodoo like restarting the scanner, unplugging, replugging, quitting, restarting the Mac and all of a suddon it will work again.

This should also (sort of) work using the 32-bit version of GraphicConverter but probably just as unreliable, I haven't tested it yet.

VueScan, however, just works every time. I have known about VueScan since 1999 but just recently used it, because I always found some tips on this forum for making my 9950f work with Canon ScanGear CS, including with Lion. But not anymore apparently. I miss the "backlight correction" feature but I believe it is similar to VueScan's Multi- and/or RGB/Infrared Exposure. Have some reading to do...

Hi Tw9JD5, and GMR5,

I am so happy to hear you were successful using Vuescan and Mountian Lion with your 9950F. I am not having the luck you did. Can you confirm what you have installed and where and if there what steps in what order you did to acheive this?

I am trying to get my 9950F to work with Mountian Lion. I have followed the steps outlinge by Rabrack, inserting instead the 9950F software where applicable:

1. Unplug the scanner and disconnect it from the computer.

2. Use App Zapper to remove all old non-functioning versions fo Canon software and old Vuescan

3. Install "9950fosx10341en"

4. Install "cstbosx4934ej4"

5. Install latest VueScan "vuex6491"

5. Restart

6. Connect 9950F to power and, via USB, to computer

7. Open Image Capture (image Capture sees the 9950f)

8. Install: "cstbosx5014ej4"

toolbox does not function

9. Run Vue scan.

Vue scan sees the scanner and goes to make a preview but hangs there, not actually making an kind of preview. I must Force Quite Vue Scan

Image Capture, Vue Scan and Toolbox all see the scanner but can not scan or make a preview image.

Can any of you how have successfully used Vue scan and Mountain lion with a Canon 9950F please let me know what is working for you?

Thanks!

There are two versions of Vuescan - a 64 bit version and a 32 bit version. The scanner only works when you instal the 32 bit version of Vuescan. I installed it when I upgraded to Lion a nd now with Mountain Lion it still works.

OMG! That was it! Thank you soooooo much! I installed the 32bit version of vue scan and my 9950F works perfectly with Mountain Lion. To think I spent the last 16 hours trying to get it to work and researching and your simple clarification fixed it perfectlyl!! YAY!

Glad I could help.