Digital BW, The Print

> So I wonder whether I'd be just as well off with a good 35mm SLR
> and a high-end 35mm scanner like the Minolta 5400 ?

A high-resolution scan of a smaller film format isn't quite the same as a
low-resolution scan of a larger film format.  You can get the same number of
pixels, but the scan from the smaller format will contain more grain, and
since it has more grain and less resolution, the precision of tonal
gradations may suffer as well.

Still, if you are shooting fine-grained films, a higher-resolution scanner
should give you a better image.  At the extremes of films like Tech Pan,
even at 10,000 dpi there is still more detail in the image than you can
extract.