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

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I may have to buy some new hardware. $230 is lower than what I would have expected, but was still wanting to avoid new hardware for a few reasons. 1 - Right now I'm unemployed, 2 - The setup I have now is very close, 3 - The setup now is much faster than scanning and 4 - Do I have room to put anything else on my computers desks (yes both words were meant to be plural).

However, I found this information in the product summary interesting:
The real test for a film scanner is how well it can produce an image from color negative film, due to the film's inherent latitude and the differences between the densities and contrast of the cyan, magenta, and yellow layers. Konica Minolta's improved negative-to-positive conversion algorithm ensures effortless image production with true-to-life results.

I wondered if this kind of hardware changed the color by using a filter and looking at cyan, another filter then magenta... or if it was converted with software. "improved negative-to-positive conversion algorithm" sounds like software to me. But if something like MS Digital Image suite's negative filter won't do it, I suspect it's not found in over the counter software.