Digital BW, The Print

Hello:

I am researching film/slide scanners for use in a classroom/lab 
for photojurnalism. The school took out the wet lab and replaced 
it with a 16-station G4 Mac lab as a step toward going all digital. 
However, we cannot expect college students to be able to afford 
a digital camera with manual controls. I 'd rather they learned on 
a manual film camera and scanned the film. However, no film 
scanners in the lab yet.  The machines are running on Mac OS X 
with Photoshop 7. I'd like to buy about eight film scanners (one 
for every two workstations). I've used both the Nikon and Canon 
scanners. If I had unlimited budget, I'd get the Nikon, but we can 
only afford about four. I've looked at the Minolta Scan Dual III and 
it seems like a great deal at around $280. Not sure it will hold up 
very well in a university setting. 

Anyone used the Minolta Scan Dual III? Feedback greatly 
appreciated.

Thanks,

Joel