You know, when I first started scanning with my film scanner, I had to do some major clean up, but now I make sure my negs are pretty much clean before scanning and it works great. I always have cotton gloves on when I handle the negs, I give it a blast of compressed gas before I put it into the film holder and then when it's there, I give it a couple more blasts. Then I angle the holder so that I get some light reflected across the negs and move it up and down so the light travels across the surface. That way I can see any dust spots on the surface. If I see any, a small blast of air helps. If a neg is really bad and won't come clean (dust and/or fingerprints) I clean it first with some Edwal Anti-Stat film cleaner. -=>Donald