For those that do contact prints, what is the difference in a flatbed scan of a contact print and a flatbed scan of a LF negative in terms of quality? Many thanks...
Depends on the process. For my 8X10 pt/pd prints its naturally necessary to scan the print. Even for manufactured paper such as Lodima, I think its important to do the print, especially if you've masked/dodged/burned etc the print.
Paper texture significantly degrades the quality of a scanned image; RC scans okay but many FB and especially FB matte papers do not. Many of us who print to matte paper post neg scans in the APUG gallery for that reason. RC scans almost as well as film, in my experience, at least for the typical web-gallery sized images.