Shaun -
I recently went through the same thing. I may have written here a few weeks ago about scanning several hundred slides taken by my late father in the late 50's and early 60's. My mother had found these in a closet and no one had viewed them for decades.
I used a Canon FS4000. It took weeks. The FS4000 doesn't have a bulk scanning attachment for slides so you load 4 at a time. That's probably not a big deal, because the scans take a few minutes each. I did about a dozen slides each evening while I was reading email and doing other things. I'm sure the Nikon or Minolta scanners would work just as well.
I scanned most of them as 8 bit color and 2000 ppi. After all, they were taken with an Argus C-3. Anything special I re-scanned at 16 bit color and 4000 dpi. The slides and scans are now all cross referenced so I can find the slides and do a re-scan if necessary.
The Kodachromes look as good as the day the were processed. The Ektachromes vary from pretty well preserved to faded but recognizable. I'm encouraged by the results of my experiments in restoring the faded slides using the techniques described by Katrin Eismann in "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching".
At any rate, I feel better now that it's done. I'm in the processes of building slide shows on DVDs. I showed the first DVD to my Mother, my kids and grandkids last weekend. Other than my mother and myself, no one in the room had ever seen these slides before. In fact, none of the others were even born. My oldest son is 29. The grandkids are all single digits.
I think DVD's are great for this. I can make a copy of what used to be a one-of-a-kind photo album for each kid that wants one. In addition to the TV formatted slide show, the DVD's contain a copy of the full resolution files. It's kind of a distributed backup system.
Now, I need to move on and scan several hundred slides I took in the seventies. After that, it's going to be weeks of scanning old prints on the flatbed scanner.
Granted these are family snapshots, not fine art. As tedious as it may be, I'm having a good time with it.
Good luck on your project, whatever you do, it's either going to take time or money.
See you later, gs
