Scanner advice

[bfluegie]

I am interested in scanning some old family photos (color and black and white). Most of these will be kept digitally, but a few will be printed--probably nothing larger than 8x10. I have both slides and prints, including negatives for a few of the prints. My current scanner is an Epson Perfection 1670. Here are some of the specs:
Optical resolution: 1600 dpi
Hardware resolution: 1600 x 3200 dpi with Micro Step Drive (tm) technology
Maximum resolution: 13,600 x 18,720 dpi with software interpolation
Color depth: 48 bit internal/48 bit external
Grayscale depth: 16 bit internal/16 bit external
The scanner includes a light inside the cover and an alignment plate for scanning two slides or one strip of film (4 or 5 35mm frames)

I have a couple of questions:
1. Is this scanner adequate for scanning photos or are there better scanners I should consider (keeping in mind this is not a professional operation)? I'm getting OK results, but things look a littly blurry on screen at 100% magnification. I'm willing to accept that it is my technique rather than the hardware, or even the quality of the original photos.
2. Is this scanner adequate for scanning slides and negatives (I'm having less success with this when I try it)? Do I really need a film scanner?
3. Really off topic, but can anyone recommend a method for removing dust from slides and negatives without damaging them? Some of the slides are 50 years old and have been stored in slide trays inside cardboard boxes.

I bought the epson refurbished about 4 years ago, so I am not adverse to upgrading hardware at this time. I have several hundred slides, and at least as many prints to scan. I found a thread on processing scanned images, so I will use that advice before asking more help on that topic.

Thanks!

[colourbox]

Most of these will be kept digitally, but a few will be printed--probably nothing larger than 8x10. I have both slides and prints, including negatives for a few of the prints. My current scanner is an Epson Perfection 1670.

The scanner you have is adequate for the purposes you describe. But if you have around $200 to spare, the current Epson of that type (http://www.layersmagazine.com/epson-perfection-v500-photo.html) should do a much better job of scanning slides, and in sharpness and detail. It's mostly just because the tech has advanced in the years since the 1670 came out. Although you will not be printing many of them, the newer model should make scans that produce better prints.

What I mean by your current scanner is "adequate" is that technically it can do the job. But I highly suspect that the current model is probably a smoother overall experience. When you're going to scan hundreds of items, little annoyances quickly build up into long-term frustrations. For example the current model has dust and scratch removal (which is a godsend); not sure if the 1670 does.

Note that the quality of a scanner is practically impossible to determine from the listed specs, for example resolution only tells you how many pixels it produces, not how sharp the scans actually are, just like with a digital camera. You have to read reviews.

[bfluegie]

Thanks for the quick reply. I will probably try a few more variations in the settings with my scanner, but in the end I will probably upgrade. I did check out some reviews on the Epson Perfection V500 and it does look like a good scanner at a reasonable price. I appreciate the advice.