Digital BW, The Print

Hello, all.  This question (observation) is new to me.  The last week I've
had some time to fiddle around making prints from a Canon 10D with the Canon
24-70 L zoom (my first experience with a digital SLR).  I converted the raw
files using Capture One to 12-bit tif and printed as b&w on the Epson 2200
with OEM inks.  I did as much as I could in Capture One, sharpened with
Photokit Sharpener, converted to untagged grayscale and printed (for reasons
I don't understand, if I convert the RGB file to grayscale before printing I
get a very neutral b&w print with no metamerism.  This makes little sense to
me since I think the files are sent to the 2200 as RGB, but there it is.).
The main adjustment I made in Photoshop CS was soft-proofing for Epson EEM
and printing with the untagged gray profile as the print space.  The thing I
noticed is that 11x17" image size prints were remarkably clear and sharp at
180 dpi (required because of the small 36mb converted raw file).  They have
excellent tonality and depth.  As a crude comparison, they seem like HDTV
compared to your run-of-the-mill telly.  This is as compared to 360 dpi
prints from b&w 35mm scanned on the Nikon 4000ED with a variety of films and
good glass.  I am surprised at this result with such a low dpi setting.

I have read that this is possible because the digital camera files, though
small, have less extraneous noise.  Another factor I have read is that with
the smaller Canon 10D sensor, you are using the best part of the already
good Canon L glass.  Any thoughts or pointing me to other sources
appreciated!  So far it looks pretty encouraging, since I don't make really
large prints.

Regards,

  --Ken Carney
    www.kencarney.com