>Sorry for the long length, but photography & digital image buffs may find this interesting and that is who I suspect can help.
>
>I have thousands of 35mm slides and photos that I took before digital cameras existed. {...snip...}

>Any tools, tricks, ideas out there?

Visit http://www.bhphotovideo.com and from the home page menu on the left side, choose < Computers & Solutions < Printers & Scanners < Film Scanners & Accessories < Film Scanners. 'Solutions' from sub-200 to over 1000 $.

I own a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV 3200dpi 35mm Film Scanner that handles both slides and negatives, and the negatives are instantly converted to positive color with no problems (IMHO). I'm amazed at the quality of the scans. It seems that at maximum resolution, the grain of the film becomes somewhat of an issue as opposed to some part of the hardware or software.

HTH,