[Leica] Scanning C-41 B&W?

[mattmorgan1 at mac.com (Matt Morgan)]

Apologies if this is one of those regular questions, but I have shot a 
few rolls of Kodak BW400CN, and put the first roll into a local 
(not-pro) lab to process neg and scan onto CD. I'm not used to this 
process, I normally take T-Max/Tri-X to the pro lab.

The images on the CD have a 'look' that's not quite right. Quite low 
contrast, no real blacks. I tried to scan a couple on my new scanner, 
that I'm not a master of yet, Minolta Dimage Elite 5400, and the scans 
are very contrasty, and lots of densely dark areas, not like the scans 
I'm getting from true B&W negs.

So, my question is, should I be scanning this film as a B&W neg or a 
colour neg, and changing to B&W later?

I probably won't bother with the CD next time, but like the idea of 
quickly getting my negs processed, and have seen some good examples of 
C-41 processed B&W shots on this forum, so just wondering how people 
are getting optimum results?

Thanks, Matt.