Digital BW, The Print

> The B&W scans on this old-timer leave much to be desired, especially
> in capturing details from areas of high negative density.

I don't understand.  Do you mean highlights or shadows?

> Without provoking a religious war, any recommendations for a scanner
> for unmounted 35mm B&W negatives?  I'm shooting fine grain 100 & 400
> ASA, Leica optics, materials ranging from high contrast to those of
> long tonal scale!  Alas! I wan't it all!

If you are shooting exclusively 35mm B&W, I would highly recommend a good
used Leafscan 35.  It scans B&W with a single neutral density filter,
instead of scanning in RGB and converting to grayscale.  It's 4000 SPI, 3.6
dMax, and around $500.  Software is very utilitarian, but everything is
there to make superb scans.