This looks pretty clean to me, but I do feel your pain. After years of mediocre (sometimes just plain bad) scans with a cheap Canon flatbed, I finally splurged on the Epson 3200. There's a huge improvement in the quality of my scans, both directly from negatives and from prints. At $400 I consider it quite a bargain, especially since I use it almost every day. If you can afford it, the satisfaction you'll get from sdomething newer and better might be worth it since you're working with so much film. :)