Originally Posted by Dogbait
When a particular shot or subject calls for B&W, a color photo can be converted with a decent photo editor and you have much more latitude than you can get with film and paper developement.... and the results are quick and easily tweaked.
I agree that you have a wider range of controls available to do work in shorter amounts of time in Photoshop, but I have to nitpick on one thing. A properly exposed and processed B&W negative still has a much greater dynamic range than a digital sensor does. I'm talking 14-15 stops. If you know your scanning, you can pull all of that out of the negative and use it, too. A digital sensor has a comparatively compressed lattitude in terms of raw information. This is why I use and love a mixed workflow - initial exposure on film, everything after development on the comp.