Scanning negatives

I can't get my Epson CX5400 to scan negatives. It says in the manual that it can, but no matter what I try, I can't get it to work :O( There isn't really anything in the user manual or on the web site about trouble with scanning slides/negatives. I've tried playing around with the settings and configurations but I can't get it to work. Can anyone help me with getting this to work. I have a bunch of wedding photos that my wife wants to scan and save onto a disk "forever"
thanks for any help you can give me.

 

there should be a setting to convert pics to positive, in the software that came with the scanner.
wifey has no problem with here scanner/software

 

Haha, yes, well, I had this problem some time ago. Black and white you can easily scan in with greyscale and just invert. Colour negetives are a tad harder though. Slides are easier, but still a pain.

It would need to be at least 1200dpi to get a decent image with a 35mm film negetive. That could be why they said you could scan negetives - due to this number alone - without thinking of the practicalities.

You could try using different backgrounds -in my attempts using a small bit of gloss white as the background worked fairly well (the matte white normally in the lid scattered the light everywhere, caused colours to bleed a lot). Still not great though.
Then comes the arduous task of trying to get the colours correct in (insert favourite photo manipulating program here).

Unless you've got the software to process the image afterwards, and the correct attachments for the scanner, you're not going to get a decent, presentable image. You're better off going to a photo lab and have them scan it with their scanners and have them put it on CD. It'll only be a couple of quid (bucks), and its well worth it for the quality.

Relevant link:
http://www.shortcourses.com/how/scanning/scanning.htm