sburre

In terms of scanning film (particularly older slides) with a digital camera and enjoying the faster capture compared to a high-end scanner with infrared-based dust removal, good luck with spotting out the dust with Photoshop...you're gonna need that extra time (and software based solutions are going to create noticeable 'artifacts')

I have a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 and am getting superb results with infrared dust removal on Kodachromes using the latest version of Vuescan on 'light' setting (but I also take a bit of time to first hit the slides with an anti-static gun and Rocket air blower...it is worth the effort). I had done direct comparisons with Silverfast vs. Vuescan and artifacts are significant with Silverfast. I've never tried NikonScan and have no interest in it since it is no longer supported and otherwise the biggest downfall with it is the lack of IT8 calibration (I have multiple IT8 calibration targets, including the expensive one for Kodachrome). Waiting to get some reference scans back from a firm that uses Nikon 9000 (I've already received some back from another shop using a Flextight scanner and prefer what I'm doing (better colors and near complete removal of dust). Then we factor in usage of the SF-210 batch feeder and true raw processing workflow (with a couple of PhotoShop plugins). I believe that all of these comparisons are going to be highly dependent on the combination of particular scanner/software (and things like IT8 calibration), so your mileage may vary (wildly).