Scanning B&W negs Flexcolor

[FrankG]

I'm renting time on an Imacon with flexcolor 4.8.6 (Mac) tomorrow and need help to optimize the settings for scanning black and white negatives as I'm not too familiar with the program.

Firstly, is there any benefit to scanning RGB rather than Greyscale?

I understand that if I was converting from a col transparency or col neg to black & white, I'd have the advantage of selecting the best of the three channels for my B&W image. But if the original is a B&W neg, then is there any advantage?

Any other tips, or workf;low suggestions, as I'm unfamiliar with the Flexcolor software, would be appreciated.
I need very large (maximum optical res) scans to open in PS and enable making large prints.

Thanks

[fike]

I'm renting time on an Imacon with flexcolor 4.8.6 (Mac) tomorrow and need help to optimize the settings for scanning black and white negatives as I'm not too familiar with the program.

Firstly, is there any benefit to scanning RGB rather than Greyscale?

I understand that if I was converting from a col transparency or col neg to black & white, I'd have the advantage of selecting the best of the three channels for my B&W image. But if the original is a B&W neg, then is there any advantage?

Any other tips, or workf;low suggestions, as I'm unfamiliar with the Flexcolor software, would be appreciated.
I need very large (maximum optical res) scans to open in PS and enable making large prints.

Thanks

I don't know much about the equipment you are describing, but it seems to me that you would be opening a can of worms by scanning in RGB.  If you can scan in 16-bit grayscale, it would seem to me, you would be getting the maximum benefit of gradations of light and dark.  Scanning in RGB would just increase file sizes and processing time, unnecessarily.

[tived]

Which Imacon will you be using?

Flexcolor is pretty manual in many ways, but it does have some auto function which can in some cases give you a good starting point. If it is an older Imacon, then brace your self and be patient, they are rather slow, but in most cases its worth the wait.

Have fun

Henrik