Digital BW, The Print

>...common wisdom is to shoot in black& white, to scan in 
> color and use only the color channel that gives the best result. 
...

That probably depends on the scanner.  We used to scan in RGB in order 
to overcome the 8 bit limit of the old, cheap scanners.  However, a 
good scanner with high bit depth should be excellent in grayscale 
mode.  

However, with my Nikon 8000 I find I have to scan with the Nikon driver 
set to "positive" to avoid clipping the ends of the histogram.  I 
develop (Tech Pan) to a higher contrast than the driver assumes for 
negatives.  So, by telling the driver it's a "positive" (slide film, 
presumeably), even though I also set the driver to "grayscale," the 
driver gives me its full dynamic range capabilities.  I then adjust the 
histogram manually.  It works well.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com