Pete, I just bought an HP Photosmart C8180 at Office Depot a couple of days before Christmas and converted a few hundred slides that my wife had which were pictures of her as a baby and toddler. I got the printer on sale for $199. I had to scan the slides 4 at a time through the scanner (you can also scan film negatives) and even though it was a pretty manual process, it turned out great. The printer has it's own CD/DVD burner so I was able to make and lable a disc for her and put it under the tree. The printer alows some basic editing but I will ultimately upload the pictures to my computer and photoshop them for further enhancement. My project wasn't quite as large as yours but it if you want a slow approach, I definitely recommend this device. Good luck.