Digital BW, The Print

IMHO the developer has more to do with how a film looks than the choice of
brand.  For B&W 35mm film used in a hand-held camera, I would recommend
using XTOL developer.  I would choose this hands-down over D-76 or HC-110.
There have been many published discussions of the differences, but all you
need to do is blow up your shots to 11x14 size and you will see for
yourself.  Check grain, shadow detail, and the transitions in tonality in
very smooth tone continuous subjects.

Personally, I shoot Tmax film now.

I think that for hand-held photography, like fashion and photojournalism, I
would select the digital camera.

If you are interested in scenic or fine art photography, and if you can use
a tripod, film may offer much higher quality.

I think a career photographer may want to own both.  If you buy the Nikon,
the old lenses fit and work fine, so one set of lenses will serve both your
film and digital cameras.  I know that many staff members of the local paper
here are shooting with the latest Nikon digital body and zooms, and it seems
every one of them has the legendary 24mm F2 lens which they use about as
often.  You can sure tell the difference looking at the daily newspaper.
One photographer was over last week shooting a feature, and that is what she
used, a thirty year old lens that was beat to death on a brand new camera.
(note the F2.8 is not the same lens, it does not have the floating center
element, which is what makes the F2 so great)  And there are many other
classic lenses that slay the new versions made for the digital cameras, such
as the 55mm Micro-Nikkor.

Converting color to B&W offers you more options than shooting B&W film only
as far as post-processing filtration is concerned.  The big difference
between B&W vs color film is the range of dark to light values that the film
can record.  And the further alterations that you can do to it in
developing.  

Here is an example:  you take a night photograph showing brilliant
streetlights and deep shadows.  To develop this negative for maximum
quality, you want to push process the low values (shadows) because they need
all the help they can get.  However, the highlights are already over-exposed
and need "pull development" so the emulsion doesn't become opaque.  To
accomplish this, you put the film in developer for about 20 seconds, then
place it in a tank with water and let it sit without moving for five
minutes.  The shadow areas continue building density for the entire 5 minute
soak.  The highlights burn out the developer in contact on the emulsion at
once, and their development is arrested.  Repeat the cycle 3 times.  that is
how you can both push and pull process a negative at the same time, further
information is in Ansel Adam's book "The Negative", he calls it water bath
development.  The only way that I know to accomplish this with a digital
camera is to make a series of exposures and put them together in photoshop.

As to scanning, here is a scanning tutorial I put up:
http://historicphotoarchive.com/stuff/kodachrome2.html

best of luck
Tom Robinson