Ok, so neg. film can handle 11 stops. Can your scanner pull that much detail out? I wrote in another post on how my Epson seems to scan transparencies better than neg material. I think it's because of the contrast difference. Scanning neg. requires a higher degree of contrast change and hince the added noise from the cheapo scanning that I can afford. How many stops of light can photo paper handle without looking too low in contrast? I might be tempted to try some neg. 4x5 since my more local lab will process it than I would still be required to scan and print digitally unless I pay them the big bucks for a custom print. I usually buy near outdated film on ebay for less than half the cost of new and neg. 4x5 is hard to find at that price on ebay. I do shoot 120 film in neg. and have the lab print proofs from 6x7 and 6x9 I'll have to scan and proof. They will only contact print 6x9 and that's pretty useless.

Here's a 120 6x9 scan on Fuji Pro160C