I tried to use my Nikon Coolscan V ED slide scanner over the weekend and discovered that its software doesn't work in Leopard, much less Snow Leopard... I guess its been a LONG time since I've needed to scan slides. The Nikon Scan 4 software hasn't been updated since 2004, in fact...
I'm not a pro user; I'm scanning old (early 1970s to early 1990s) color slides before they degrade too much further. These are all fairly old well-used slides, and so need dust/scratch removal and some color correction/restoration. They are all family photos, and so doing this right is fairly important, but I have limited time and skill.
In looking for replacement software for my slide scanner, I have only found two contenders: VueScan and SilverFast. Unfortunately, Apple's built-in Image Capture doesn't 'see' the slide scanner, although it works perfectly with my flatbed scanner.
VueScan is less expensive ($40 for standard version with 1 year of free upgrades and $80 for the pro version with lifetime free upgrades, and supports neatly all scanners ever made. I've used the VueScan demo and it works very well with my slide scanner and seems to make good-quality scans.
SilverFast is pricier ($50 for SE version, $218 for Ai IT8 version, and up) with 75%+ of retail price paid upgrades (and no upgrade discount for the SE version, apparently), and the version you but is locked to a single very limited set of devices (Nikon LS 50ED and Coolscan V ED slide scanners, in my case). I haven't tried SilverFast yet due to its unattractive pricing/upgrade policy, but will try it if others recommend it highly.
First, are there any other alternatives I haven't considered?
Second, what software do you all recommend?
My Mac is an Early 2009 'Nehalem' Mac Pro with 12GB RAM running Mac OS X 10.6.2.
Thanks in advance!

A note to Tucows Downloads visitors:

All good things…

Super COOLSCAN 9000 ED Nikon. Note: More memory may be required depending on film type, scan size, resolution, bit depth, the number of scans performed in each session, the film holder or adapter used, and whether Digital ROC or Digital GEM are used. Webcam Utility lets a Nikon camera be used as a webcam when connected to a computer via USB. The camera will function as a webcam when “Webcam Utility” is selected as an external camera in a web conferencing app. Nikon CoolScan V ED. VueScan is compatible with the Nikon CoolScan V ED on Windows x86, Windows x64, Windows RT, Windows 10 ARM, Mac OS X and Linux. This scanner has an infrared lamp for scanning film. VueScan's 'Filter Infrared clean' option can be used to remove dust spots from film scans.

We have made the difficult decision to retire the Tucows Downloads site. We’re pleased to say that much of the software and other assets that made up the Tucows Downloads library have been transferred to our friends at the Internet Archive for posterity.

The shareware downloads bulletin board system (BBS) that would become Tucows Downloads was founded back in 1993 on a library computer in Flint, MI. What started as a place for people in the know to download software became the place to download software on the burgeoning Internet. Far more quickly than anyone could have imagined.

A lot has changed since those early years. Tucows has grown and evolved as a business. It’s been a long time since Tucows has been TUCOWS, which stood for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software.

Today, Tucows is the second-largest domain name registrar in the world behind Go Daddy and the largest wholesaler of domain names in the world with customers like Shopify and other global website builder platforms. Hover offers domain names and email at retail to help people brand their life online. OpenSRS (and along the way our acquisitions of Enom, Ascio and EPAG) are the SaaS platforms upon which tens of thousands of customers have built their own domain registration businesses, registering tens of millions of domains on behalf of their customers. Ting Internet is building fiber-optic networks all over the U.S. At the same time, we’re building the Mobile Services Enabler SaaS platform that is powering DISH’s entry into the US mobile market.

Point is, we’re keeping busy.

For the past several years, history, well sentimentality, has been the only reason to keep Tucows Downloads around. We talked about shutting the site down before. Most seriously in 2016 when instead, we decided to go ad-free, keeping the site up as a public service.

Today is different. Tucows Downloads is old. Old sites are a maintenance challenge and therefore a risk. Maintaining the Tucows Downloads site pulls people away from the work that moves our businesses forward.

Tucows Downloads has had an incredible run. Retiring it is the right move but that doesn’t alter the fact that it will always hold a special place in hearts and our story. We’re thankful to the thousands of software developers who used Tucows Downloads to get their software in front of millions of people, driving billions of downloads over more than 25 years.

Nikon Scan 4 Download

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Elliot Noss
CEO, Tucows

Nikon Scan 4.03 Software

A note to Tucows Downloads Authors/Developers

Nikon Scan 4

If you’re a developer who used the Tucows Author Resource Center (ARC) as part of your software dissemination, to buy code signing or other services, we’re happy to help with the transition.

Nikon Scan 3 Driver Software

Any certificates purchased through ARC remain valid. If you’re looking to buy or renew code signing certificates, we invite you to go straight to the source; Sectigo was our supplier and will be happy to be yours too.
Feel free to reach out to us at help@tucows.com if we can help with anything at all.