Digital BW, The Print

If I were you I would spend some time on the 
NikonCoolscan8000-900 Yahoo group and print some of those 
comments out. Pay particular attention to the new glass carrier 
out there that allows you to fluid mount with Kami drum  
mounting fluid. You need to be aware that the Nikon can have 
focus problems with medium format (I've had difficulty making 
the film lie flat) but many, many, people are suggesting this 
newly designed (not by Nikon)  glass carrier is the answer. 

I use the NIkon Supercoolscan 4000 and the 8000 where I teach 
for my less important work, and it does pick up scratches and 
dirt easily. The digital ice feature can work well on small color 
files but not at all with black and white and degrades the 
sharpness of all large files in my opinion.This fluid mounting 
could really eliminate that dirt and scratches headache and 
possibly improve the dynamic range a little bit also. But, like I just 
said , keeping the film flat with a Nikon and medium format is 
very important.

Although I use drum scans most of the time I would like to pick 
up one of these 8000's for some of my work because of the 
firewire speed of working. 

Finally, look on Ebay. I have seen a ton of these Nikon' 8000's 
there and a lot of them have warranties and are new. The photo 
stores in big cities are trying to clear them out for the new 9000's 
which  seem to be almost the same scanner . But go to that 
website and read.