I am looking for a digital slr that is very simple to use for making artistic shots using manual settings, so the aperture and shutter speed should be easy to adjust looking through the viewfinder. I took lessons in black and white photography in college and like b/w photography a lot. I wonder if I should just stick to film slr's and scan my negatives? I want interchangeable lenses for sure, somewhat compact body. Thanks for comments.

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I shoot digital, but I love B/W film. I shoot with a Medium Format camera, and scan on a Nikon Film scanner, and the results are better than digital. Plus, you slow down and think before shooting -- unlike digital guys who bang away, hoping that one of their 5,000 shots will be a winner. If you go with film, (and aren't rich), get something like a Moskva-5 folder. It shoots 6X9 CM negatives -- about as big as you can get without going to a view camera. But don't cheap out -- spend enough to get a good example -- say $150.

For actual back and white prints, the best is to shoot using the black and white film of your choice, develop it using the developer of your choice and print it using an archival process. A black and white print from dye-sub or Inkjet will NOT have the value of a photographic black and white print, printed by the artist on fiber based paper. If you still want to use a DSLR to produce your images, one of the smallest DSLR's is the Nikon D40. In the end you will still have to buy Photoshop to make the RGB to black and white conversions to get close to a black and white photo print and then it will NOT have the texture or value of a true photographic print. You can do a test. Using one of your best black and white prints from college, scan that negative and try printing it on a good photo ink-jet or dye-sub printer and then compare the two. To answer the other part of your question, first look for a DSLR that will use the lenses you already have from the system you used in college. Otherwise spend a LOT of time researching the available DSLR systems and pick the one that best suites you style of shooting. Go into a camera store and see which of the cameras fits your hands the best. See which cameras menu is the easiest for you to use to make changes in ISO, camera resolution, white balance, mode switching and make EV changes (a camera with +5/-5 EV could be important to you). Finally, take a SD card with you and test each camera at their highest and lowest ISO as well as when using the white balance that matches the light in the store as well as with it in the "auto white balance" mode. Once you get home and are able to see the results on your large computer monitor, you will know which camera is better for your needs and expectations, not ours. Take your time before you decide. Once you choose one, you will be married to that system for decades and the cost of changing to the other system will cost you nearly as much as a divorce

Although it can be claimed that medium format and Nikon Scanners can produce scans that are 'better than digital', with the stitching capabilities of current Photo Shop and Photomatix Software, the size limitations of digital prints are no longer bound by megapixel size. Prints can be made based on the limitations of media storage (it's beyond a Terrabyte now.... that's HUGE storage) and printers are producing larger and larger print sizes... some are even making billboard prints. I also shoot medium format (Mamiya 7ii) and my scanner (Epson V500 Perfection) even exceeds Nikon's best scanner with 6400 x 9600 Optical Resolution and 48-Bit Color (Nikon's best is 4000 dpi optical) at a fraction of the cost of Nikon cost (under $200 shipped). I spent $1600 for a Nikon LS-1000 which pales in comparison. Your software can do your B&W conversions so even though you may enjoy Black and White photography, I think you are leaning towards it more for the playing in the darkroom aspect of it. Just think of all the hazardous chemicals you get to pour into our ground water drinking supplies... such fun. I'm inclined to recommend a digital camera not only for the environmental impact but because you can produce images that rival anything out there (just look at Marc Adamus' digital work on Photo.net http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=1353935 and you can't help but agree that digital can produce stellar work if in the hands of a great designer/photographer). .