[ZeroZero7]

I just received this scanner from Topbuy.com.au

The product specs on their site for this scanner read:

Win 98 (driver provided), Win ME, Win 2000, Win XP, Vista 32 / 64 or MAC 10.4

There is no Mac driver included, only a PC disc.

I found the Tech Support Guy site by searching Google for "Otek+scanner+Mac+driver".

There are 4 pages of a thread that is now closed about lots of people that bought various versions of this scanner and had trouble making them work with Windows PCs!

In the thread was the email address for the manufacturer in Taipei, tech-support@eu3c.com. I emailed them immediately and was pleased to get a reply in minutes, but not good news...

"We are sorry that we don’t have Mac driver. If the model you purchased is our FilmScan35-I, it doesn’t support Mac though."

Before I contact TopBuy and arrange to return it, has anyone got one of these to work with a Mac?

If not... buyers beware. You will find this scanner, and a number of its variants, on EBay, TopBuy and other places that say they support Mac in the specs.

Thanks.

[Yankee Rose]

I haven't seen any workarounds elsewhere .... bummer. Thanks for the warning.

Just as an "FYI", I picked up an Epson 3590 Photo/Slide scanner on eBay for about $30 this past summer. Works great in OS X (10.5). It's an older model and you have to scan each slide individually, but I love it. The negative scanner works great too.

Take care.

[ZeroZero7]

Thaks Yankee Rose.

I have an older Canon 660U (1995), but Canon don't have drivers for OSX so I have to use my G5 iMac, boot in Classic and scan one frame/slide at a time. Slow and tedious. Each one takes about 3 minutes with a mandatory preview, then the scan and then name and save a TIFF.

I put a FujifinePix 9500 still camera on a tripod, in front of an old projector screen, loaded a cartridge of 120 35mm slides into an archaic Hanimex projector (circa 1975), and shot the images at 3488 x 2616. Sort of production-line imaging. Problem is you need to focus the projector and the camera for each slide, and also use a remote trigger release on the camera because of the slow shutter speed required in the dark. It is also tedious, but the results are not bad.

The Otek scanners are advertised all over the Web and seem like a cheap fix. Big W even have a version called Zipp for $88, and their catalogue says Mac OSX & Windows! I'm in a regional area and the nearest Big W is 75k away so I have not actually seen one yet.

I thought I might as well explain what I've tried incase anyone else has thousands of slides or negatives they want digitise before they deteriorate. Some of mine taken in the 60s are fading already.

[Yankee Rose]

Hi ZeroZero7:

Hey ... have you looked into a slide duplicator for your camera? Forgive me as I'm not 100% sure if they are available for your model, but just wanted to throw that out there. I'd considered one for my Nikon D70 when I first started restoring my mom's slides, but ultimately went with that used Epson scanner.

Funny you mention slides from the '60s ... just yesterday I digitized my mom's college graduation pics from 1961.

[ZeroZero7]

Hello Yankee Rose.

No, I haven't looked into a slide duplicator for my camera? I'll start trawling the net to see what I can find. Thanks for the idea.

For anyone following this post:

I emailed topbuy.com.au about the "useless-to-me" scanner a few hours after I first posted my dilemma. I also found the Australian distributor, www.ozicaltec.com in Caringbah NSW, and emailed him - it's a one man show by the look of it. I also emailed Crazy Sales who advertse the same line of Otek products saying they work with MacOSX in the spec sheet, and asked them where I can get a driver.

No replies from anyone... yet.