Digital BW, The Print

Greetings all, interesting thread. I share Dana's approach.

I thought about this issue a lot last week. I have a project coming up
with an architect who wants some quality b/w as well as digital color.
I began investigating how to get b/w from my digital color files,
knowing there was more to it than just clicking on "remove color" in
PhotoShop Elements. The more I looked at options like CS3 or CS4,
various plug-ins, stand-alone conversion to b/w software and so on, I
finally ended up thinking heck, why not shoot in b/w film as I shoot
the color digital. So I plan to shoot the digital color, leave the
tripod in the same place, mount my b/w film camera and take the same
shot. Develop the film, scan it, and hey, I've got the film look. Been
developing b/w film for 40 years so am quite comfortable with it.
Plus, I would then have a hard copy b/w original which is more
comforting archivally speaking than a file on a CD when CD players may
go the way of the dinosaur. 

I did some tests, scanning some Ilford FP4+ film, 35mm yet!, and got
some very fine 8x10's using the MK3 approach on an Epson R1800. A
friend of mine calls this the hybrid approach. I'm inclined to go this
way for the time being.

fwiw,

Paul