Digitising negative collection

Digital ICE does indeed add time to a scan. In fact, film scanning is a time-consuming thing to do. For this reason, we have not digitised our back catalogue of images en block, but only as needed. After all, the originals are a pretty good way to archivally store images.

I've embaked on a similar project with my Minolta Dimage IV, quite pleased with the results although B+W grain seems a lot more noticable especially with Tri-x rated at 1600 ASA. I haven't had any problems with dust fortunately but if you are going to wash your negs then use proper photographic wetting agent (just a few drops) which will break down the surface tension - DO NOT USE DETERGENT - household detergents are full of salts which will harm your film. I was going to archive everything and then realised just how long it would take so I'm now just prevewing each strip and scanning just the negs that are really worthwhile; one of the nice things is discovering pictures that I never printed.

Ken

I too keep the negatives and slides as archives, and only use the scans for prints or sharing in slideshow DVD presentations.

When doing a lot of negatives, try not to get carried away with "maximum quality" settings, especially if you aren't printing. I used ICE on some really dirty stuff, but as has been noted it really knocks down the speed. I've seen other types of dust-removal software make weird artifacts and blurs. I end up happiest with a quick scrub.