Digital BW, The Print

Completely agree Steve. I tried Vuescan and soon went back to 
Nikonscan for the same reasons. The third party software cannot make 
the scanner do more than its original manufacturers designed it for, 
however, I believe software like Vuescan works for some people 
because it blends some of the scanner controls into more intuitive 
headings and performs any non-original software functions in PC RAM - 
such as long-exposure pass combining, of which I have no idea 
regarding its accuracy in registering the two scans, nor the 
algorithm for the combining process.

Overall it is likely that as this software is positioned as "scanner" 
software, many assume that if the output from it looks better, both 
visually and via histograms, then it must be a better scan ignoring 
that the software has already, in many cases, performed significant 
image manipulation via a workflow that cannot be fully articulated. 
Its great for people who scan then either stop there or go straight 
to the print - A kind of "Lite Photoshop Elements".

As for the Nikon scanners themselves; from the resulting file size it 
would appear that the Nikon scans B&W in RGB anyway and then performs 
some rudimentary channel mix on them.

Although somewhat off topic for this board, a more interesting and 
potentially usefull discussion on scanners would relate to how to 
tweak the CCD amplifiers' gain to best extract more and better 
information.

regards
Craig