Digital Images from Print

[Shaun]

My wife and I have both been shooting on film with nice SLR's for a while. So, on our honeymoon, in addition to 100 or so digital images, we shot about 10 rolls of film. We'd like to have the film stuff available to us digitally so we can edit, archive, and post to the Web. What's the best and most economical way to do this? I don't want to spend $400 or more for a dedicated film scanner, but would consider spending up to $200 on a scanner. Also, how about just developing to CD - what kind of resolution do you get vs. the pix from our 5 MP digital?

Thanks.

[another view]

Images scanned from film and images taken with a digital camera look different. It's hard to describe, but it's subtleties. Both are capable of excellent results though.

I have an older version of this $379 scanner: http://www.benqshopper.com/filmscanner.html
Mine is a 2720S which does not have Digital Ice (which automatically removes dust, would be nice to have) and runs on SCSI (card included). I can get pretty nice 8x10's from my slides but haven't tried anything larger. The scanning software that came with it isn't the greatest for negatives though. You might be able to still find a 2720S somewhere and it should be pretty inexpensive. For 35mm, the quality that you'll get from a flatbed probably won't be very good because the film is so small.

Other good options would be older used scanners like a Nikon LS2000, Coolscan III or IV. Put any of these with Adobe Photoshop Elements (under $100) and you'll have a pretty capable setup, but there will be a learning curve...

[CTPhil]

Does anyone here use a big lab like Clark to develop their film? For 99 cents they will digitize a roll of film and you can download the digitized images from their web site. I'm brand new here, so if that's a stupid new guy question, my apologies in advance.