As someone else said, careful with commercial scans because some firms scan at fairly lo-res unless you pay a fortune. Insist on a drum scanner if you're paying! Before I went digital I had several Fujichrome films processed complete with CDs at nearly £20 a pop, and the scans on the CDs were truly diabolical. Kodak Photo CDs were even worse AND loaded piles of crapware onto the PC without asking.

I suspect the inexpensive scanners mentioned use a sensor chip and lens - effectively a cheapo digital camera rather than a scanner per se. This would account for the "variable" quality!

I've used an Epson 3170 flatbed for this for some time now. Results are pretty acceptable but never quite razor sharp as when the slides were projected with a Leitz lens. I reckon this is because the scanning head is set to focus more or less on the scanner bed, and the slides are still in their mounts, so focus is a few thou out. I can live with it - it's fiddly enough scanning slides without removing the mounts, and you can't sensibly do that with Kodachrome/Ektachrome card mounts anyway.

I tend to do pretty straight scans at 2400 or 3600 dpi, 4 slides at a time, go off for a cuppa while the scanner whines away, then titivate the scans in Picasa or Photoshop.

A friend has a Nikon Coolscan and the results are excellent but secondhand 5000EDs go on Ebay for £800 and the multi-slide attachment for another £60. I think I'll carry on with the balancing act between marginal focus and over sharpening for a while yet.

Oh well, off to get the daffodils onto my last Kodachrome film before Dwaynes of Kansas (last K/chrome processor in the world) pull the plug!