Hi Al. I tried negative film and gave up when I found the same problem of finding a lab that could process it and print it correctly. They rely on machines too much. I ended up going with positive slide film and then scanning from there. I found I got much better colour. As for a scanner I ended up buying a Canon CanoScan FS4000US which is a dedicated film and slide scanner. I found it does a great job but is not the cheapest scanner
Last time I looked they were around $800 - $1000. Mind you that was a while ago.