I think that's my poor scanning, and vuescans settings, willie - as I said in the text, in the prints, the shadows and mids are pretty much the same, and the darker portion of the wood grain on the bench is pretty much the same too, but the contrast between this and the lighter parts on the bench are significant. I tried to match this by reprinting using the same basic methods, with the perceptol neg, fiddling with contrast grades and exposure but couldnt replicate the perceived "shine" i was getting from the pyrcocat neg.
Also, dont forget that monitor types and settings can also afect the appearance of the scan.
I'm no technical wizz, and mainly judge my results on what I prefer to look at. Subjective, I know, but i suppose all visual assessments are.