Hello, I was in the same situation not long ago. Since I had no background in scanners it was starting from scratch. I was thinking a cheaper scanner (~300) would be OK, but i then decided on the epson v700 photo which is a flatbed, but also can scan negatives. The reviews seemed to like it and I am sure the cheaper scanners still do a good job, but I am happy with it. I cant comment too much on the results as I have nothing to compare it too, but the images seem sharp and good detail is shown.
I am using the standard software that came with the scanner, epson scan, i think its called. I can then use photoshop to change the digital image if needed.
A good thing about the scanner + software, is it will scan 24 negatives and automatically make a seperate file for each frame. This might be a common feature of other scanners/software, im not sure.