In 2021, which film scanners accepting different film formats are compatible with macOS Big Sur?

Since I don’t own a scanner and don’t run a Mac, this is a little out of left field...why not just keep the old computer and scanner as dedicated hardware for scanning film?

It works now. It will continue to work if you buy another computer. It’s not terribly hard to network a couple of computers together so files can be shared.

The analogy I would use is to a darkroom. A darkroom has dedicated equipment. If you buy a new enlarger, you can still keep the old one. You don’t have to replace the sink either.

In the worst case it doesn’t work for your needs and six months from now you buy another scanner and repurpose the old Mac. Or maybe it all works out fine because it isn’t broken.

^{Just so this isn't an 'answer in a comment'}

Before you give up, try VueScan - specifically reverse-engineered older drivers to run on Big Sur. I haven't used it myself, but a lot of people have been talking about it this past year - https://www.hamrick.com

Sorry, not an answer to the exact question, but it is a possible workaround to keep using your old scanner, software ^{and reduce you impact on the environment as no new scanner is bought}.

Mac's can boot from an external harddrive.

By following these (rough) steps you can create an environment where you can keep using your old scanner:

1. Set-up an external harddrive with the last macOS that your scanner supports.
2. Reboot from the external harddrive.
3. Use the scanner and store the output on the internal disk
4. After use, reboot to your daily OS.
5. As you've stored the photos on the internal drive, you can directly edit and use the scans.

I've used this in your exact scenario a few years back when my film scanner was only supported until Snow Leopard (10.6), and I upgraded my Mac to Mountain Lion (10.8)

^{Taking the lead @Tetsujin and not leaving my comment as an answer}

According to Epson the V500 is supported under macOS 11.x

And the commercial scanning software package Silverfast supports both the V500 and maxOS 11.0 (but I don't know if that means 11.0 or 11.x)

So that is a theoretical set of drivers and scanning software that is supported under Big Sur. I haven't tried this combination myself, but if I was shooting a lot more film than I am now, I was considering a V850 and Silverfast combination.

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Now regarding the M1 based Macs, I wouldn't be going there just yet as I wouldn't trust the driver software to be compatible with those new chips. OTOH I would recommend them as a general purpose computer. However note that the iMac (no matter how sweet it looks) has a $$$ premium over the equivalent Mac mini

Slight change of gears here, but my desk sits firmly in the center of a rather large filing area full of 4x5 and 120mm transparencies and older photographic prints (primarily B&W) of antique paintings.

When the older prosumer scanner I used for book publishing lost OS support, I switched to using a light box with the slide-holder template from that scanner for transparencies: I use my camera with macro on a tripod, zoomed to full-frame. The results are frankly superior to the flatbed(s) I had been using, and is very much faster when batch scanning.

I also use the camera and studio lights for the 8x10 prints.

35mm is harder, but if you can fill the frame, its worth a try.

I shoot them in RAW, and any software that handles negatives can handle your output.

Note the lightbox was made for color-proofing etc., so it has consistent diffusion and color temp.

No Newton ring problems on scans either.