Steve,

Your Epson Expression 1600 should be quite adequate for scanning the old, odd sized B&W film negatives. The best buy in a dedicated 35mm film scanner currently is the Plustek OpticFilm 7500. There is complete model and specifications information at: http://www.plustek.com/usa/product/series.asp?s_id=4

Hmmm... I posted a follow-up question but it didn't appear. I'll try again.

David, Thanks for your very prompt reply. I was curious about your review of the earlier model Plustek, where you mentioned that it does better with negs than slides. My mix of stuff to scan is probably 90% transparencies. Would the Plustek still be your first choice?

Steve

I purchased the newer Plustek OpticFilm 7500I for my own use since my report on the Plustek in Shutterbug, and have been using it for scanning slides, even a lot of Kodachromes since I have acquired a Kodachrome IT-8 target and a means to profile the scanner for Kodachrome specifically. I am obtaining excellent scan results. And I just saw B&H sponsored a video review on the 7200. There is also a new instruction video on using iSRD with the Plustek 7500i to clean dirt and scratches from slide as part of the scanning process, and which can be applied in a limited way using masking even to Kodachrome.
See: http://www.silverfast.com/download/movie/aist-660r1+_en_isrdforplustekfilmscanner_en_2008-07-23.mov

Excellent, thanks! About 95% of the old slides I'll be scanning are Kodachrome, so it sounds like I should also consider the Kodachrome IT-8 target. Seems expensive at about $50 with s/h, but worth it if it saves a lot of time & effort.

I'll be very interested in the iSRD to remove physical damage. I'm not sure that it will solve my biggest problem, which is that a lot of the old slides seem to have some sort of fungal damage, where bits of the emulsion are missing. Sort of like a bug ate away bits of the emulsion. This happened to slides that were stored in various ways, in different homes. Some in the original cardboard boxes. Some in archival plastic pages in hanging files. Very weird.

Profiling for Kodachrome is a scanning advantage in terms of preserving the unique characteristics in the film in thee scanned file, it does not make it easier or does it save time and effort to any extent. And at present Kodachrome profiling with an IT-8 is not a possibility for most even if you buy a Kodak K3 IT-8 target from B&H, SilverFast as yet does not support the profiling and as far as I have been able to do it it involved a very expensive X-Rite i1 Photo system.

I'll post if and when and what Lasersoft comes up with as soon as the information is available.

As for the fungus damage, if it cannot be repaired after scanning by Photoshop manual retouching, I don't know of any other recourse.

Many thanks, you just saved me from wasting the price of the Kodak target!

Quote:
About 95% of the old slides I'll be scanning are Kodachrome ...
... I'll be very interested in the iSRD to remove physical damage.

As far as I know, it's almost impossible to use a dust & scratch removal tool on kodachromes, because they contain silverhalides which totally reflect the infrared waves.
read this for more details: wikipedia
Beside the Nikon 9000 with Ice4 the new Silverfast 6.6 iSRD with a Nikon Film Scanner seems to be the only possibility to use a dust and scratch removal tool on kodachrome slides.