Digital BW, The Print

> I have been a strong supporter of the tradition
> print but now 95% my images are done digitally.

To each his own.  If you do not have a need for very high resolution, and/or
speed is important, and/or money is no object, and/or you need the "clean"
look of digital, and/or color smearing is not an issue, then digital is
fine.  But it's not for everyone.

> The best I can get is 8 stops from film I get 11 from
> the chip.

You should be able to get 11 stops from film, too.  But you can get 17 stops
from an actively cooled CCD of the right kind.  None of this matters,
though, since you'll be lucky to ever put even seven stops on paper, and
that's under ideal conditions (if you print offset, five stops is a more
realistic figure).