[vvoid]

The silver particles in the film aren't very transparent and you can see this for yourself with a microscope. All tonal representations of B&W film, whether a scan or traditional enlargement, depend on limitations of resolving power to blur or alias the grain into a tone.

Correspondingly, you will see a difference in apparent grain from different scanners at different resolutions. If you think there is nothing to be gained by scanning on a drum or virtual drum, pick one of your best negatives and pay to have it professionally scanned!

[antiterra]

I’ve definitely had plenty of medium format negatives drum scanned and I have found consumer scanners to not be great for color slide film. But, scanning a grainy/gritty film like HP5 or TriX doesn’t seem like quite the same kind of challenge.