Need to know what is the best and cheapest product for pure B&W only.

Question

I am switching from fine art 4x5, B&W photography in the old fashioned chemical darkroom to pure digital.  I want to get the best professional Adobe program for this purpose at the best cost.  Not interested in any fancy manipulation beyond what I could do in the old chemical darkroom, simply want to produce the best "straight" black and white images in sizes up to 20x24.  Have a trial version of Lightroom and I've heard Adobe Camera Raw is a needed program also.  Any advise would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I got an early version of Silverfast with the scanner, but since I was getting such good results without it, I never tried it. What are it's advantages?
Since I don't have any experience with the Epson scan software I really can't compare, but you can get full details on the Lasersoft SilverFast scan software here:
http://www.silverfast.com/
I have a Plustek Opticfilm 7600I Ai 35mm scanner that came bundled with SilverFast Ai. The biggest advantage is Multi-exposure function which takes two or more scans at different exposure levels and combines them to increase Dmax range. Dmax is where virtually ALL scanners fall short, except expensive ($5,000+) drum scanners. By extending Dmax with Multi-exposure the shadow areas (slide film) of the image have reduced noise and blocking. I couldn't even begin to scan Kodachrome slides without it! B&W negatives have lower contrast range, but Multi-exposure will surely improve the highlight detail (i.e. Negative images). There are also a number of different dust spot removal functions, including ICE. You need to check if ICE is actually supported on the target scanner and I believe it is not as effective with B&W negatives due to silver halide grain type. You' have to sort out the benefits of SilverFast that are applicable to B&W negatives versus the scanner manufacturer's software. IMHO the scanner bundles that include Silverfast (Epson 750-M) are the best bang for your buck. Some people swear by Vuescan:
http://www.hamrick.com/
The benefit is that it is cheaper ($79.95) and I believe it can be used with multiple scanners. SilverFast requires a separate license for each scanner. Some links:
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=13525
http://www.dpug.org/forums/f6/epson-scan-vs-silverfast-vs-vuescan-1941/
Opinions on which is best vary more than the weather! IMHO for 35mm color film work SIlverfast Ai pulls the best capability out of my scanner. Here's a 3600dpi scan (4,833 x 3,240) of a 35mm Fujichrome Provia 100 slide showing a 100% crop (557 x 386). I use IT8 Ektachrome and Kodachrome calibration slides with SilverFast to create custom film profiles. It doesn't get any better than this, at least with 35mm film (double-click on the picture to see 1:1).
     Crop (557 x 386)
     Full Image (Olympus OM2 with Zuiko 28mm F2 lens @ F5.6)