PRINTS OR SLIDES
Without doubt prints are more popular than slides in general and in many shops in Scotland you will find rows of Kodak print film with a sprinkling of Fuji and no slide film in sight, some shops where I have asked if they stock slide film have said "Oh you will need to go to a specialised shop for that".
In photographing aircraft the roles are reversed and collectors gravitate much more towards slides than prints, I was taking more prints than slides until early 2000 but wasn't happy with the results I was getting so decided to trade in my Cannon camera equipment for Nikon and buy my first ever Autofocus lenses as well as switch permanently slides.
I remember reading an article which said that the two main reasons why collectors go more for slides than prints is that with prints you could make a 1000 of the same photo from the negative but with slides you only have what number of a subject that you take at the time, also a slide is a "first hand" image whereas a print is a "second hand" image in that the print is produced from the negative.
Scanning wise from personal experience I can say that if you have a good scanner up to the task you will get better scans from a slide than from a print because there is more detail in the slide from which your scanner can produce a better sharper image and with the print there can be big variations depending on where you put your film in for developing and this also impacts on the quality of scans you will get from prints.
These days I use only slides (Fuji Sensia 100asa) and scan them on my "Epson 1640SU Photo" which is a Flatbed with an adaptor for scanning slides that sits on top after removing the normal lid so after lots of trial and error I am finally satisfied with the results that I am getting.
When scanning from prints I found better results could be had from using the print itself rather than the negative so I would send my print film to a Mail Order company in England for a better standard of printing than what you get from the local Chemist shop which is more geared towards mass produced holiday snaps so if scanning from prints it is best to pay a little extra to get the best developing you can find as it pays off when you are ready to scan them.
BASIC SCANNING PROCEDURE