[xoxoxoBruce]

I bought an H.P. 4570C flat bed scanner, even though there was nothing wrong with my 4200C. The reason is the 4500 and 5500 come with a transparent materials adapter (TMA) for scanning 35mm slides and negatives and the H.P. software to use it.
It's a little slow and cumbersome at the beginning of the learning curve but once I get the hang of it, should be OK for small projects.
This picture called "motley Crew" came from a very dark negative.
Of course a 5x8 picture from a bad negative at less than 102k is a little tricky for a neophite but it works for me.