A good film scanner is always better than a good flatbed scanner. Although if you print your own images, flatbed might be the way to go. In all other cases, scanning film is the way to go. Labs often crop prints, **** ** colors and contrast, etc. So it's always better to scan the complete original....well, especially when the size of the print is smaller than what you want to scan. Film can withstand enlargments many times it's size, without loosing any detail. Prints don't. I work with a minolta dimage dual scan II film scanner, which gives me the ability to autofocus/auto exposure (nice when scanning film or framed slides....cause the film will be at a different position in the holder). Also have the ability to correct color balance and levels before scanning and some other stuff. Lemme see....I usually scan at 1400dpi input and 2800dpi output. That's the fastest/best quality balance for me....although if time doesn't matter much I love to scan them at 2800/2800 only with autofocus and then resize them to around 1000px width. (But what the resize options in photoshop, cause that makes a difference too). Hope that helps :)