Looking to replace my current HP S20 film scanner with something that has
higher quality scans.

So far have narrowed down the search (within my budget) to either the
Plustek 7300 or the Plustek 7500i SE. Both have the 7200dpi maximum
resolution but the difference, apart from price, appears to be that the
latter one has infrared to help eliminate dust particles and scratches.

What I'm trying to establish is whether or not the infrared facility to
remove dust and scratches on the 7500i is worthwhile having in respect of
the performance in doing this task or is it best just to rely on dealing
with the dust and scratches manually by software?

Most of the media that will be scanned is colour transparency film of
various types (Kodachrome, Agfa, Ektachrome, etc.) but there will be the odd
colour negative film as well.

I'd appreciate if anyone with experience of these two film scanners could
give their opinion of them both negative or positive. Especially any
experience on the usefulness and performance of the infrared facility on the
7500i.

Many thanks.