Digital BW, The Print

It's not all about file size. I've made several 35x46 quad prints from
scanned 35mm negs, and they look fine. If you made a silver print that
big it would have the same image qualities, probably a bit softer from
the enlarging lens. They were from drum scans at 4000dpi, with a 6
micron aperture. THis doesn't make all the large of a file from 35mm,
but in fact it's sampling as much or more detail than the film can
resolve (depending on the film), so a bigger file doesn't really have
more information.
For big prints it becomes a matter of scaling up, possibly sharpening
a hair at print size (only for grain definition, not image), some
methods work better than others, and may be image dependant to a
degree. I understand Qimage is very good at it, but PC only.
Tyler